Pics of my apiary.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

I thought I would post pictures of my Apiary, all 19 hives.  Nothing special, just sharing photos on this hot 90F temp day in North Arkansas.  As you probably noticed, I am not a camera man.









The last photo is a heavily bearded hive, this hive has bearded like this all summer.  I added an upper vent which made no difference on bearding.
Blessings

[Ben Framed]

Nice layout Mr Van!!  Looks very peaceful and relaxing..  Enjoy Sir....
PS Glad to see that all looks good even after the bear attack!!

[BeeMaster2]

Looks good Van. It looks like you are using plastic tops. Are they insulated? Try adding a 3/4 inch foil covered insulation under the top. Most of my hives have one in the cover and one in the screen top board. Makes a big difference.
Jim

[Acebird]

I added an upper vent which made no difference on bearding.

Van, that kind of bearding would make me nervous because they are jamming the front entrance not fanning the entrance.  In general I would say your hives are too small for this time of year but maybe you are doing it on purpose to limit the height.  The downside of that is you will get more swarms.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Mr. Ben, thank you for the nice comment.

Mr. Jim: {makes a big difference} Jim, are you talking insulation all year, or just summer???  Yes my tops are plastic insulated.

Mr. Ace, my standard winter configuration is two double deeps, 10 frame.  The bearded hive is an exception.  The bearded hive simply refused to wax out the upper deep, but they did wax out the super???    So I removed the upper deep and I let the super remain.  The super is full of honey.

[Acebird]

Van is it normal to set up a winter configuration this early in your area?  Have you hit fall/winter dearth yet?

[paus]

With my bees I have never seen them cluster like that except before they swarmed.  I credited that to screen top board and DSBB.  I like to use insulation board in the bottom and sawdust in the top in the winter but they always have some open screen in winter.  Winter temp seldom gets into the single digits. Several members of our club leave the screen open all year.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Van is it normal to set up a winter configuration this early in your area?  Have you hit fall/winter dearth yet?

Ace, Yes, a bit early for winter configuration.  Later, I will add winter top boards with fondant and burlap for moisture. There is a very small fall flow in this area, as you can see, it is all wooded.  Very few pastures within reach of my bees.

Most beeks in this area just use two deeps for winter.  I am an exception that I add winter boards, Vivaldi {sp}boards.

[BeeMaster2]

Van,
"Mr. Jim: {makes a big difference} Jim, are you talking insulation all year, or just summer???  Yes my tops are plastic insulated."

I used to just use the insulation in the STB during the winter. Then one hot spring day, after removing half of the STB insulation boards, I noticed that about half of the hives were bearding. That is when I found out that the ones with the insulation boards, especially the ones with the top insulation board and the STB insulation boards were not bearding. Now I keep them both on all hives all year long and rarely have bearding. When they start to beard, I know they need more room.

Jim

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Jim, do you make your own top insulation board, foil back or purchase a mfg one???  If mfg, can you direct me to the company so I can see exactly what you have.  Is there a cut out as in a top cover that fits under the roof top.

STB short for: screened top board?

[Oldbeavo]

We use a commercial product called "Foil Board". It is 3/4" of polystyrene with foil glue on each side.
The lid is 1 1/2" frame with a 1/4"plywood top. The foil board is put on top of the ply and a tin lid with 1 1/2" sides that fit over the foil and frame. Lids have 2 vents at each end, 3/4" holes.
The insulated lids stay on all year and reduce condensation to almost zero.

[BeeMaster2]

Jim, do you make your own top insulation board, foil back or purchase a mfg one???  If mfg, can you direct me to the company so I can see exactly what you have.  Is there a cut out as in a top cover that fits under the roof top.

STB short for: screened top board?

Van,
I make all of my STB-yes, Screen Top Board, and my telescoping covers. Some of them have 1/2 or 3/4 inch foil backed boards and some have just the foam boards that I added foil duct tape to. It was just what ever I had available when I made them.
Jim

[Ben Framed]

Jim, do you make your own top insulation board, foil back or purchase a mfg one???  If mfg, can you direct me to the company so I can see exactly what you have.  Is there a cut out as in a top cover that fits under the roof top.

STB short for: screened top board?

Van,
I make all of my STB-yes, Screen Top Board, and my telescoping covers. Some of them have 1/2 or 3/4 inch foil backed boards and some have just the foam boards that I added foil duct tape to. It was just what ever I had available when I made them.
Jim

Jim what is the purpose of the insulation board with the foil? Will it work just as well without the foil or is the foil there to prevent the bees from chewing the insulation board, or some other reason?  Thanks, Phillip Hall

[Acebird]

Foil will reflect heat (infrared).

[BeeMaster2]

As Ace said, it reflects heat. I works as well in the summer as it does in the winter. It reflects the bulk of the solar heat in the summer and reflects the bees heat in the winter.
Put your hand on top of the hive cover and see how hot it gets, then turn the cover over and see how hot it is inside. The added 2 layers really makes a difference.
Jim

[Ben Framed]

As Ace said, it reflects heat. I works as well in the summer as it does in the winter. It reflects the bulk of the solar heat in the summer and reflects the bees heat in the winter.
Put your hand on top of the hive cover and see how hot it gets, then turn the cover over and see how hot it is inside. The added 2 layers really makes a difference.
Jim

Thanks I didn't understand that you was putting the insulation on the very top of your hive. I was thinking that you was placeing it underneath the top of your hives. I did understand that oldbevo places his on top. Let me ask y'all; I have seen insulation board,  (the pink type) placed beneath  the top of a migratory top for the purpose of stopping condensation. The question is, will the foil type work better underneath migratory hive top than the pink type? Do any of you know if bees tend to chew on the pink type of insulation board  placed in this manner?   Thanks, Phillip

[BeeMaster2]

As Ace said, it reflects heat. I works as well in the summer as it does in the winter. It reflects the bulk of the solar heat in the summer and reflects the bees heat in the winter.
Put your hand on top of the hive cover and see how hot it gets, then turn the cover over and see how hot it is inside. The added 2 layers really makes a difference.
Jim

Thanks I didn't understand that you was putting the insulation on the very top of your hive. I was thinking that you was placeing it underneath the top of your hives. I did understand that oldbevo places his on top. Let me ask y'all; I have seen insulation board,  (the pink type) placed beneath  the top of a migratory top for the purpose of stopping condensation. The question is, will the foil type work better underneath migratory hive top than the pink type? Do any of you know if bees tend to chew on the pink type of insulation board  placed in this manner?   Thanks, Phillip

Phillip,
If the bees can get at the pink insulation they will chew it up. If there are no tares in the foil and it is sealed on the edges the bees do not chew it up.
Jim

[Ben Framed]

Thanks Jim

[The15thMember]

Nice looking yard, Van!  I'm glad you finally got an avatar picture, too.  I wasn't aware there was color photography a million years ago.      Sorry if I'm totally jumping threads here, but thanks for the heads up on the white hole (on the Hurricane Florence thread).  I love theoretical physics, and I had a blast spending about an hour researching white holes and then telling my sister all about them and freaking her out (in a good way, of course).