Hi there ABB, thanks for your post, much appreciated. To be clear, I’ve only been keeping bees for three or four years so pretty much a beginner, and in no way I want to pose here like an expert on bees. I am totally ignorant on the subject, but I try to keep an open mind.
I am trying to avoid anthropomorphising bees and their behaviour, and want to understand how bees do their thing from those that conduct some sort of scientific research on the subject, and explain things the way I can understand them.
Unfortunately, bees are very adaptive and deciding what’s “best” for them can be at times head scratching. That’s my conclusion so far.
From what I read until now, bees like to build their comb on solid ceilings of cavities, and seem to prefer bottom entrances of about 15cm squared. They evolved to deal with this. I am reading that even in hot climates, top insulation is far better than ventilation because the latter disturbs their efforts to regulate hive temp with a chimney effect.
I am also reading about open mesh floors, which is another sort of ventilation and is helpful in getting rid of moisture. Warm moist air in the brood rises, and as it cools down going through honey frames/comb it goes down again down the hive walls. I posted an illustration taken from The Australian Beekeeper recently, on some other post. Some research done by the NSW DPI has shown their benefit in a variety if climates. I tend to give some weight to scientific research more than anecdotal evidence. Problem is that even scientific research can be contradictory so I know I have to be very careful.
I am also aware that here in the west, migratory lids have vent holes, but my understanding is that’s because hives are migrated on trucks, and need the extra vents. I may be wrong. There are also Chinese hives on the market that come with vents.
I find this topic fascinating and intriguing and like to hear what others are doing and why, as long as it doesn’t turn into a religious debate.
Now, regarding that large propolised hole. Those bees obviously didn’t read the book I read. I read that bees “usually” propolise gaps of up to ~6mm, and wax larger gaps. Having said that, I saw a photo of a screened inner cover almost entirely propolised. Thanks for sharing.
