I’m seeing a lot of deep concern about the danger to bees from cold temperatures and while I completely agree that our bees should never be subjected to unnecessary exposure to cold temperatures, the ability of bees to deal with cold is being highly underrated. We (the bees and I) live in northern Illinois (US) and last February had temperatures that went as low as 33 degrees below zero (F). My hives have screened bottom boards which are completely open to the air throughout the summer and in the winter I have a slide in panel which almost completely closes off the opening. There is a little air leakage around edges. Last mid February I went to check and make sure the hive openings were not blocked by snow and found that the sliding panels had been pulled out by critters or blown out by the wind and were yards away in the brush. This was after the week during which our all time record low temperature of 33 degrees below zero (F) occurred. Mourning the death of two of my best hives I opened the lid to see what the inside of the hive looked like. What I found was wall to wall LIVE bees apparently oblivious to the fact that the bottom of the hive was completely open to the elements. These two hives are my best production hives and I see no evidence that a week in sub zero temps with the floor wide open harmed them at all. If the top of the hive had been wide open I’m confident that the result would have been far less “happy ending”.
An interesting read Tim but not sure why you sent it to me as I am in a sub-tropical climate. Bees survive in both extremes of climate, hot and cold, but when it gets over 100F there is a bit less flying and more fanning at the hive entrance.
Cheers
Hi Pete, it may be me it was meant for. I have been waffling on a bit about added insulation to a hive during winter. It just comes natural for me because I spent most of my workng life keeping hot air out. The better insulated my fish boxes were & the better the ice box lids fitted, the longer my ice would hold on a 5 day fishing trip. Therefore the better condition my fish would land in. Those were the good old days.
cheers
Sorry Peter, I thought I was responding to readers in general. Obviously cold tolerance in your case is irrelevant but a novice beekeeper reading your comments here in the US might get the impression that the restrictions you stated might apply to them as well. I’m a novice at this blogging thing and if my response only went to you then I completely missed the audience to whom I spoke. Sorry about that. Please apologise to your bees for me as well 
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Don’t give up @Tmmmmm ! 
I am in SoCal (San Diego) and I enjoyed reading what you wrote. Please write more. 
Thanks Dawn, I have a brother in SD who is terrified of cold weather . Your temperatures are probably even milder than Peter’s… lucky you. I did lose a couple small hives last winter and I’m pretty sure that their problems were twofold: first their population was nowhere near the size of the ones who survived with the doors open and second, I’m sure they had inadequate ventilation because both were dripping wet inside when I found them dead. My focus this year has been to try to get maximum population going into winter, adequate ventilation, and of course few to zero mites. I’m also going to try to do all my harvesting through the flow hives because the other methods are too much work too messy, and too disruptive to the bees.
@Tmmmmm - fabulous message, thank you. I am originally British, so I am not terrified of cold weather, but California weather is much harder on our bees than the weather in the UK. We get a decent harvest about one year out of 5-7 in California (we had great harvests every year in the UK 20 years ago), because of the arid climate in this part of the US. Of course with our current politics, we may never have another harvest, but meanwhile, I am enjoying our bees and what they can teach us.
Not a problem mate, when you hit a reply it is usually to respond to the person who has posted, but it is posted for all to read. I back tracked to find anything that I had posted that you were referring to but couldn’t find it but then JeffH posted that your reply could have been meant to something he had posted.
Here our climate concerns are about hot weather extremes and drought, at the moment there is lots in flower but very little nectar in them. This past year here has been dry and had on the bees. Last I checked about 80% of Australia has been declared in drought. Winter here is when for about 6 weeks I wear jeans and maybe a long sleeved shirt, in Summer it is really hot and humid.
Cheers
Bees can handle cold weather but when it is cold and so humid that there is sweating in the hive it can knock a hive about badly.
Interesting to read of your conditions there. so totally different to mine
Cheers
Interesting reading on the different climates.
Here in mid Ontario, Canada, our temps range from winter low -30’s to summer mid +30’s. Ventilation is key for winter survival as the condensation will kill them.