Where Logan lives he prob needs a second BB…Nebraska has some pretty fierce winters.
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I agree with your thinking Eva, a second brood box in his climate would be the next step when the frames in the brood box are fully built out and in use for his Winters.
I regard seeing bearding as a healthy strong hive here in late afternoon with days of over 85F as helping to lower the internal hive temp and not a reason on its own to do an inspection prior to my regular inspection…
Cheers
Yeah I was going to be tossing my 2nd Deep on this coming week, but now with those frames needing built out again I’ll hold off for a bit. One Winter (4 years ago I only had 1 BB and it was OK, but it was also a mild Winter + I put insulation around…though 2 Deeps is very important if we get a bad or even normal winter.
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Are you sure about holding off? From the bearding in the first pictures it was clear your hive population is pretty huge- assuming good weather they will build out those new frames in a day or three. If the other frames of capped brood didn’t perish in the heat then they will all be hatching and the population rising rapidly. My guess would be that the original collapse was not just due to the heat- but that combined with the sheer number of bees in the hive- to push things over the edge. Freshly drwan comb with nectar in it is very vulnerable to collapse in those conditions. We get extreme heatwaves here in Adelaide South Australia with temps well over 40c for days on ends (up to 45c)- and night time temps around 38c. I have lost two hives during such a heatwave with collapsing combs just like yours (only my frames were wired foundation)- sadly the entire hive collapsed and wiped out the colonies. In both cases the hives were very strong and in single brood boxes. other hives with a second box on top managed to get through as well as weaker hives. During that heatwave thousands of beehives were wiped out here in South Australia- many commercial apiarists who were very experienced lost hives. There is now a recognition that the climate is changing and beekeeping practices must adapt with that.
now when I expect high temps during summer I make sure all hives have a second box on top- at least- and I cover all my hives with shade-cloth covers. I also put water right at the hive entrance in a bucket with a tea towel draped over the top and into the water. Since doing this we haven’t lost anymore hives in last seasons heat waves.
This is what I now do:
Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank goodness we are now getting 27C - 31C the rest of this week. I am watching them very closely, but may not be able to toss a 2nd Deep on until this coming weekend as I’m in the middle of a major project (replacing the roof on the tool shed that is about 26x30 feet; it was torn off in a major storm a month ago) that some in-laws came in to help with and has to get done 
So far I know they are making OK progress on one of the frames on the north side of the box, and the frame on the south is being worked on, but not sure how far (bees won’t move enough for me to see through the window).
So far my bees seem to like the water with rocks next to them, but I really like you solution! If the heat picks back up I might bring back out my white netting and set it up somehow to keep on the hive and consider your watering if needed.
At this point I’ll toss on the 2nd deep ASAP.
From what I can tell with my windows, one frame is around 90% built on the south side, and then another around 80-90% on the north side. I am very surprised at how fast they got back to this point, but guess it’s because of having so many bees in the hive at this point.
Almost done with my project I am having to do, so looking forward to adding the 2nd Deep this weekend.
“Homer, your bravery and quick thinking have turned a potential Chernobyl into a mere Three Mile Island. Bravo.”
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Hi @techieg33k have just seen your horrible situation from back in mid 2020. How did that situation turn out for you, sure hope that it’s now ok. Where I live in south eastern New South Wales Australia, 33kms south of the city of Wagga Wagga (translates to many crows), we too have extreme summer temps 40C+, we have had 2 X41C this summer, but for the most it’s been a mostly mild one, so much for climate change. I have decided to try 2 brood hives, and also plastic foundations for the very reason as to stop what happened to you and others. I have also setup a steel framed shade over my hive that’s cover can be rolled up to let the sun shine on the hive on mild sunny (obviously) winters days. I have also have a hessian bag over the roof of the hive with a micro sprinkler fixed onto the bag, which I have used on those 2 very hot days, which all (the above) helped to keep the hive roof temp to 34C (I have a digital thermometer, with it’s sensor fixed into the roof cavity).
Just to explain, my Flow Hive is relatively only a new setup, since mid November 2020, as well as being my (very) first attempt at beekeeping, but I was a 4th generation farmer, so I have a fairly good knowledge of animal husbandry. I’ll try to put a photo up, not quite sure if I’ve got the latest photo of it in it’s mostly finished (evolving) state.
Sorry the photos of the new shade setup must be on my mobile phone, and I haven’t worked out how to transfer them to my iPad, the joys of being a tech dumb dumb (translates to dumb old farmer), and also that my phone isn’t Apple (I know, a poor excuse).
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Just because I can’t let that comment pass…
Even though your comment was likely just casual, I feel it is akin to someone saying “grandma died at 95 despite smoking like a chimney her whole life, so much for the negative effects of smoking” and I think this is unhelpful when there are still many that truly do not accept the reality and are working against making needed changes.
Climate change is a global phenomenon, with local effects that can be varied or difficulty to predict. In some localities, global warming will likely result in cooling.
Discerning the global warming trend from the noise of local weather details is impossible. It takes a much broader view.
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They never finished 100% of the frames in my brood boxes, but got pretty close…maybe 3x (2x brood at 8x wide) are around 60%.
This has been a warmer winter, much like the last few and aside from a very deep cold front last month it’s been easy on them. I checked and can see some normal die-out, but the numbers of dead look typical.
Here in a month or two I should be able to get a quick inspection in.
Thanks for checking!
I’ll be working on a method to shade in the afternoon if it keeps up crazy. 40C+ isn’t uncommon, but just usually for a few days at a time.
@chau06 knock your socks off Alok, I’m 66yrs old, and was born in a heatwave that still holds max temp records to this day across much of Australia. No AC, not even an electric fan, my mother used wet towels hung around my crib to try and keep my from getting heat stroke. So please don’t try to lecture me about climate change, PLEASE. BTW I also have 36 solar panels on the roof of my house.
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@techieg33k Logan, here is a photo of my setup. The canvas top, can be rolled to the back on sunny winter days. The hessian bag is on the ground for now, as it’s no longer hot enough to be needed.
Oh BLW, eventually the legs will be able to be lowered, or raised. It’s still a work in progress, eg if the neighbour eventually removes the old shed behind it, then I will have to add a shade cloth down the back legs, to stop the heat from the afternoon sun.
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I’m glad you’re not one of them.
I’m sorry that I offended you - maybe I have become oversensitive because of the people in this country and in the news who only tenuously grasp reality.
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There’s just some excellent realtime satellite data at everyone’s finger tips…here’s an example of what I used during our recent North American extreme cold snap to help me interpret what is going on around me. It illustrated temperatures from -20C in Texas, USA to -45C in my area of northern Canada during that interesting event.
This single cold snap encompassed a land mass 2 1/2 times the size of Australia…
Humans were consuming all sources of energy just to keep the water pipes from freezing and subsequently rupturing…basic services for survival were tested and this showed our vulnerability to mother nature’s whims. A year ago the opposite being the case in the southern hemishere with Australia being on fire.
So what does this have to do with beekeeping? It’s been my experience in the last decade that honey yields have become less stable…from absolutely prolific to only a pittance. But what amazes me the most is how honeybees adapt to those conditions…their behavior draws on millions of years of evolution…of genetic intelligence. My experience with them spans an effete 4 plus decades.
Laws of probability tell me that the chance of getting a good crop are in my favor…guess you could call that “tenuously grasping reality” 
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Thank you for that. That setup looks great and is something I could do and should look into doing.
@chau06 Alok, as I said at 66 years of age, I have a very good grasp of reality. It’s those that are only starting out on life’s journey, whom are the ones with little to no grasp on reality. I only have the solar panels, because I believe that the way things are going, (in Australia) that the price of electricity will go sky high, so I’m making sure that I have my own electricity to help get me through. I also have 7Kva petrol generator as a backup when the solar and or commercial power fails, I’m also looking into installing 2/200Kva deep cycle batteries, as solar panels just don’t work at night, nor are they much good on overcast winter days (as we are in a prominent winter rainfall region)
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You have a few years on me but I would argue that (within reason) more birthdays does not correlate with a greater grasp!
There are many young people, much younger than both of us, who are amazing in their perspective and grasp on the world around us. Even my 3 year old - amazing in her powers of observation and unclouded reason.
Doomsday prep?
Mine don’t work at all when covered with snow and it isn’t practical to have a battery that covers my entire winter solar energy shortfall. But I have a 11kwh battery for short outages.
@chau06 Alok, solar panels next to useless here in winter too, but it’s cloud cover, and not snow that’s the problem here, and short daylight hours are a killer too, hence the tongue in cheek comment about the solar panels not working at night:pleading_face:
Yes I doubt that even the two deep cycle batteries would allow me to go totally off the grid, but with the little that we are paid for excess power that our solar panels produce on good sunny days, I might as well use that solar generated power to charge up 2 deep cycle batteries that I mentioned to you about.
I’m not quite sure how to comment about being compared to your 3yr old daughter, I’m sure she can explain to me why temperatures in the mid 1950’s where so hot, or why in the 1970’s it was so cold that we were wearing coats in summer, and had snow in winter on the farm where I was born which was a very rare occurrence for that area, and I certainly wouldn’t even try to compare that snow, to what you probably experience every winter, you can keep it, I hate the cold, as I louth having to wear huge amounts of clothing to try and keep warm.
BTW, I had to actually go back to what I wrote to you, to find out where I said quote “help me get through”, and your comment quote “domesday prep?” Really Alok I’m not one of whose whom are screaming doomsday global warming, sorry it’s now called climate change, gee I though that the climate is changing ALL the time, you know like as with the seasons. See, my comment “help me get through” was in regards to being able to have a safety net in place if the grid electricity was to gets too costly in the future, not doomsday, just being like a good boy’s scout, is taught to “be prepared”, and maybe to save done money in the longer term.
Good night Alok, it’s getting very late here in eastern Australia, so I’m off to bed to rest these old bones.
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It wasn’t a comparison, just an observation about three year olds!
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@chau06 Well Alok, it sure sounded like you were to me.
I had a dog that an hour before a thunderstorm, he would go nuts until it had passed, does that make him suitability to be a weather forecaster??? NO. So I don’t know what your 3 yr old daughter has to do with what we were talking about quite frankly, and I don’t really care how much of a brain box she is.
So please let’s just drop it, as I’d hate to see us have a falling out.
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