Bee adaptations to hive vents

Don’t you get debris caught around the wires?
If you don’t then I’m happy to be corrected :slight_smile:
I don’t use a board under my hives anywhere except for the first few days after a vape to count the mites.
The rubbish falls to the ground and is dealt with by flora and fauna

2 Likes

I wrapped the sides of my two hives last winter with this style of insulation and then had moisture quilts on the top of the brood chambers. I then had insulation in the roofs. I did not see any indication of issues with moisture in either hive. I will do the same for all four of my hives this winter. All of my hives have screened bottom boards and I had the cornflute boards in on both hives. It seemed to work and helped one of my hives that was low on resources make it thru the winter. I also had sugar candy cakes on top of upper brood box just below the moisture quilts.

Hopefully this will help someone out there.

John

4 Likes

Sometimes they propolize the slider, but otherwise it is fabulously clean. You have to remember that I have crazy hygienic bees though! I mean real OCD. They decimate the larvae when the mite count gets high - actually, this could be a new method of doing mite counts! :blush: I will have to take a photo of the slider next time I tear the hive right down (probably not until next Spring now), then you can see what you think. :wink:

1 Like

Yes please

There are comments here and there on Internet that bees can be too hygienic; to the detriment of rearing sufficient brood which in turn impacts on honey crop. Any ideas?
Also…where did you source your hygienic queen. I have a friend testing Dutch and German queens and I’d love to compare notes

1 Like

She is one of these:

We installed her after most of the nectar flow was over (July 1st), so I can’t tell you about the impact on honey crop for this year. But I will be keeping notes for next year. The hive next door has a solid bottom board, and a Kona queen. Kona are also meant to be hygienic, but from what I have seen so far, the Wildflower offspring are a lot more OCD in their hygiene.

1 Like

I agree about the top slot being a bit unnecessary. I have all mine in the bottom one now. It sounds to me like your set up is pretty much exactly the same as the one outlined in this article- which had been the method I was pursuing:

did you come by that yourself? To me it all makes sense. I think the issue I had was that I didn’t have enough insulation on the lid for it to work perfectly.

And- with your uncovered screened bottoms: do you have your hives low to the ground or up high on stands? I have mine on stands and was slightly concerned about a totally uncovered bottom in case of drafts and too much light entering the hive… but then- I seem to recall- you use slatted racks? Currently my thinking is having the coreflute int he bottom slot is almost like not having it at all- there is plenty of airflow but I figure it helps to stop gusts of wind, etc.

Thank you @Semaphore
That’s more or less what Ive worked out on my own. I love that diagram of airflow, I shall keep that and throw it at anybody here in the UK arguing about ventilation in our cold climate.
I have added extra shelf , to the mesh floor so that I can slide a metal tray in to vape the hive and half my floors have an entrance under the hive.
My boxes are all on hive stands well up off the ground.

2 Likes

I agree re what works for you & different local climates. I don’t have crown boards in my hives, there not something commonly used in hives over here. I went with MQ because the science of them made sense to me & after insulating the top of the hive (& sides) wasn’t working as well, thought I’d try them & see. The issue with condensation in the 2 hives appeared just after the hives began to build in numbers & become more active coming to the latter part of Spring, which makes sense. I was concerned because 1 of these hives had had issues with Chalk Brood last Summer. This particular hive is my problem hive, it has never been quite right, every problem I’ve had has been in this colony.That being said the MQ appears to be working, there hasn’t been any moisture build up on the base since I put them on. It’s still too cold to open the hives & do a proper inspection.

So the top bars are open into the roof?

I have hive mats as described by JeffH, I think in a few posts. When I was referring to the MQ needing a permeable base it was in response to

1 Like