Gilliane
That is good news and sounds like whatever caused the leak was self limiting
and / or fixed by the bees. They live in luxurious accomodation with all that
insulation.
Will, you asked about hive design to combat extremes of heat. I don’t have
exact dimensions to hand but know that some TBH makers here in Australia make
shallower bodies (maybe 2/3 of the Phil Chandler design) so the individual
combs are smaller and therefore lighter. This minimises the chances of full
comb detaching from the bars in the heat simply because of their weight.
Did the heat affect the bees?
I have 6 hives (Warre and top bar) the youngest being two years old. All
insulated as I mentioned earlier and all, except one which was in a bush fire
effected area, managed to accumulate enough honey stores for winter despite the
ravages of heat smoke and fire. But I only harvested two frames of honey this
year. Of the 4 new colonies that I’m helping new beekeepers with, 2 were not
able to store enough honey. So as you would expect the bigger colonies did
better but it was no land of milk and honey.
Jon
On 27 Jun 2020, at 6:54 pm, Gilliane Sills (Redacted sender "gillianesills"
for DMARC) <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thank you Jon and Will for your replies and thoughts. My good news is that
the amount of honey that leaked out stayed very small (I don't think there
was more than a couple of spoonfuls) and there's been no repeat of the flow.
And although on Thursday evening the bees were blocking the entrance with
their bearding, by Friday morning they'd moved sufficiently to open up half
the normal entrance and bees were coming and going as usual.
To say a bit more about the hive, it's a top bar hive to which I've added a
considerable amount of insulation. The roof has a lining of 30mm cork and
the eke contains an old feather/down duvet and a pillow case stuffed with
sheep's wool. I've added 30mm cork, with a plywood backing, to the outside
of each of the four walls. I measure the temperature above the top bars near
the entrance end of the hive (ie in the likely position of the brood) and
beneath the insulation in the eke. The result gives an indication of the
temperature in the hive, but the actual temperature could be higher. I
quoted a temperature of 36 degrees and this was the reading from the sensor
whose location I've just described. The external temperature in the shade
over the course of the day reached 29 degrees and the hive was in the shade,
either of trees or of a parasol, for much of the day. I have to say I'm
really glad we don't have to contend with temperatures in the 40s as you do
Jon!
The colony is a flourishing one and is seriously cross-combed - which is bad
from my point of view, but good for the bees, as I no longer disturb them at
all. Last year, I tried to remove the end bar, furthest from the entrance,
and the bar simply detached from the combs beneath, which were clearly
absolutely full of honey. For the last three years, a very large prime swarm
has issued in April or very early May (3rd May in 2018, 22nd April in 2019
and 10th April this year) and there have been casts too - maybe each year,
but I saw one only in 2018. This gives them lots of time to build up their
numbers again by this time of year and it's not unusual to see them bearding
in the summer - perhaps because there are so many of them that the hive is
pretty crowded inside. I agree with you Jon about the importance of
insulation - I'm sure this partly explains the health and vigour of the
colony - I added some insulation during the winter of 2017-18 and then put
the cork on in spring 2018.
Will, you asked whether the hive had been knocked and, as far as I know, it
hadn't. We get deer in the garden but I haven't seen them near the hive.
Gilliane
On 27/06/2020 03:12, Jon Darvill (Redacted sender jon.darvill for DMARC)
wrote:
Hello Gilliane
I live in Canberra Australia and we have just gone through a very hot summer
with peak temperatures above 43 degrees C. My concern about your mentioning
that there is nectar or honey seeping from inside the hive is that, given
your hot weather over the last few days, that there may have been some comb
collapse in the hive. So if you haven’t done so already I’d be opening the
hive and having a look as soon as it is a bit cooler if the temperatures you
mention are external to the hive.
I base this on an incident that I was asked to help with late in our summer
just past. What I’m about to describe is a worse case scenario and from what
you say I don't think your case will be anywhere near as bad as this, if it
is indeed comb collapse. A cautionary tale if you like.
I had sold a small top bar hive (Golden Mean hive) with a swarm of bees to a
beginner beekeeper couple in spring. They called me late summer reporting
that honey was leaking out of the hive entrance and from between the walls
and the floor, so much more than what you are reporting. They told me they
had opened the hive a week or more earlier to harvest some honey and had
enlisted the help of an experienced beekeeper who lived near them. The honey
seepage was noted some time after that and was ignored other than wiping it
away as it leaked out.
Turns out that it was 38C the day they opened the hive and they reported
their enlisted helper was “rough’ in handling the frames.
There were at least 10 full frames of honey, brood etc that had collapsed, a
lot of dead bees with a massive infestation of wax moth larvae and small
hive beetle (see attached photo). Surviving bees were foraging still and we
found the queen alive. It took several hours to carefully clean up, rescue
what comb we could and reset the hive. They had lost almost their entire
supply of honey.
In these circumstances I recommended the owners feed the colony. I think
along the same limes as Paul who mentioned in another post a few days ago,
that he would feed a colony if human folly was the cause of their plight but
not if the bees had made an error of judgement eg swarming at an
inappropriate time. I also recommended that they insulate the hive to
minimise the amount of honey the bees would need to survive the winter.
We’ve passed the winter solstice and the colony is still alive.
So my tips for helping bees survive the hot weather are;
Provide a good clean water source
Shaded from the sun particularly in the the afternoons
Insulate the hives. I insulate my hives all year round (40+ C in summer and
-5C in winter)
Only open the hives in cooler temperatures (I prefer 20-30C) I only open my
hives in spring and or autumn unless there is a pressing need.
Some of the collapsed comb
At the bottom of the hive
An insulated small top bar hive.
Insulated Warres on a carport roof
The insulation is nontoxic glass wool inside a canvas sleeve. From now on
hives I make will have insulated walls as the Golden Hive
Kind regards
Jon
On 26 Jun 2020, at 7:24 am, Gilliane Sills (Redacted sender "gillianesills"
for DMARC) <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
The bees in my top bar hive have been bearding this evening and are
covering the front of the hive above the entrance, the landing board and
underneath the hive. They're much too deep over the entrance to be able to
fan air into the hive! I noticed this evening an overflow of liquid from
the mesh bottom of the hive and tasted it to discover that it was honey.
It was hard to tell how much there was, but certainly a couple of dessert
spoonfuls and maybe more. The temperature measured just above the top bars
over the brood area reached 36 degrees during the day, but not as high as
it had been yesterday, when it got up to 37 degrees. What might be
happening inside the hive?
The bees didn't seem at all interested in the liquid, but later in the
evening wasps appeared and they were definitely interested! I'm pretty
sure there's a nest nearby, but I haven't been able to find it yet.
Gilliane
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