BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > DOWN UNDER BEEKEEPING

THE HEAT

(1/2) > >>

crispy:
Hi all well its that time of year where we all see the mercury start to rise here in aus , today where i live we are expecting around 40 degrees celcius and this will continue on and of all through the summer months until around march april time .

So i have heard that sometimes if the weather is very hot hives can melt down which got me thinking about what i could do to help keep the hive a bit cooler during the day and long afternoons ,so i thought i would try some shade cloth over the top with air space between it and the hive as i have noticed that during the afternoon sun bees are gathering outside presumably to try to cool down the hive by fanning .

My hive faces east west so the entrance is facing north and although it may get sun on it it is not full on beating down on it ,unfortunatley my calculations on amount wasnt up to speed so may have to get some more but for a prototype i think it will do a fair job for the time being .[/attachment]

BeeMaster2:
I would not worry about it being too hot, just make sure they have a safe water source nearby.
I have seen hives one top of flat gravel roofs do just fine. My father kept 5 hives on his black roof.
Do not use screen tops unless you use insulation boards over the screens. I use screen top boards and if I do not have the insulation over the screens when it is real hot, it causes heavy bearding.
Adding insulation under the lid does help keep them cool.
Jim Altmiller

crispy:
Thanks jim that was going to be my next course of action insulation with sisalation over it watch a guy in tennasee on you tube he used what looks like a cut down wind sheild sun deflector in the tp f his hives
 

BeeMaster2:
If you are talking about the foil insulation with several layers of plastic quilted together, I started using that this year. Works real well.
Jim Altmiller

Skeggley:
Hiya Crispy, my hives are in full sun here, sun up to sun down and we cop the heat too although you guys seem to be copping more than us nowadays. I?ve added 20mm foil backed foam insulation inside the migratory lid and painted the lid white and having done this it has dramatically reduced the bearding.
Full sun is recommend in all the books I?ve read so I pass on this advice however last year I heard from a beek around your way who had comb within a hive collapse on a stinker of a day. It was a mess. I think it was a single brood box colony from memory, the double deep colony?s were ok, so it can happen and adding some shade on hot days as you have makes sense.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page