Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => DOWN UNDER BEEKEEPING => Topic started by: Desert Jack on March 18, 2017, 11:32:32 am

Title: Bees in the desert -- should I even try?
Post by: Desert Jack on March 18, 2017, 11:32:32 am

Hi all.

So I've been wanting to keep bees for years and have now reached a living situation stable enough to do so. The problem with this is that this particular living situation is on a sheep and cattle station 40 minutes' drive from Coober Pedy, which you might recognise as deserving of descriptors such as 'the middle of absolutely nowhere', 'the actual desert are you crazy' and 'so hot that the heat itself makes it a tourist attraction'.

Basically, the temperature in my area ranges from average daily maxes of around 20 degrees in winter to 40 degrees in summer. This, I am aware, is not ideal bee weather. I am confident in my ability to provide the right kind of flowers and enough water (we have good bores here), but I am very concerned about the heat. I can find very little information on how honeybees deal with heat -- the internet says they stop work in the 30s and focus on cooling the hive, so are they going to be able to feed themselves? Are they going to be able to keep the brood cool enough or will it die? It looks like the only time of year they'll get to be really active is in winter, when nothing is flowering. Is this a viable climate to try keeping bees in and if so, what sorts of things should I do do help keep them cool and comfortable?

Has anyone else tried raising bees in climates like this?

Title: Re: Bees in the desert -- should I even try?
Post by: iddee on March 18, 2017, 12:35:47 pm

Contact Dee Lusby in Amado, Arizona, USA. You can find her all over Google. She keeps about 700 hives in the desert.

Title: Re: Bees in the desert -- should I even try?
Post by: BeeMaster2 on March 18, 2017, 03:27:17 pm

I visited a buddy a couple of years ago who lives in N Los Vagas. He had honey bees coming to his garden in the morning and evening. They were feral African bees. I only knew that because that is the predominant bees in the area.
Their weather is like yours.
Add your location to your profile. 
Jim

Title: Re: Bees in the desert -- should I even try?
Post by: Desert Jack on March 18, 2017, 08:44:13 pm

Thanks guys.

Title: Re: Bees in the desert -- should I even try?
Post by: PhilK on March 22, 2017, 02:59:34 am

Bees don't mind the heat, as they are good at cooling the hive. Coober Pedy has a dry heat, so with adequate water they should have no problems staying cool.

Title: Re: Bees in the desert -- should I even try?
Post by: Michael Bush on March 22, 2017, 02:35:20 pm

Dee makes quite a bit of honey.  Her and Ed used to run about 1500 hives in the Sonora desert.  She has had to scale back since Ed passed and she's not as spry as she was, but the bees were doing well.  Ed's Grandfather first moved the bees from the farms to the desert when DDT got popular for farming.