Plus it beats the skunks and possums which are currently leaving droppings around my hivesā¦ 
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Pooh bearās been at it again 
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Hi Peter48ā¦For any commercial beekeeper in my area, almost all bee yards are electric fencedā¦standard beekeeping equipment. And I intentionally put my bees in areas populated by bearsā¦they are an indicator of a diverse flower area thus ultimately resulting in a higher honey/pollen yielding/healthier hive unit. There is a very, very small percentage of the bear population that has the intuition/skills to pull this act off. The building was purchased from a local farm supply retailer as a garden shedā¦to store things like lawn mowers and tools so the walls are thinā¦we used it as a retirement home for old queensā¦living out the last of their daysā¦and using their bees/brood for making up nucsā¦nucs build up rapidly in that warm building environment. Our honey production beehouses are built much heavierā¦thick walls and solid wood backing around the entrancesā¦no bear problems with these.
If there is a weakness bears will find itā¦including an electric fencer that has worked well for months and then shorted out on a blade of grass touching the bottom strand of wireā¦their intuition for knowing that no current exists in the fence is uncanny.
That bear was Mr. Coolā¦when it got into the building it methodically took the lid and plastic sheet off each hive (no doubt accumulating many bee stings to the end of itās nose from each hive in the process) and selected the best hive out of the works for a midnight snack. When I got there in the morning, the bearās thorough and accurate hive evaluation (under assumed pressure) was obviousā¦as was itās total pain tolerance for bee stings.
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I only lost one hive and immediately moved the rest to the more robust wintering building. From the descriptions here, I think I would tolerate bears around before I would tolerate SHB! Itās just the cleanup and repair thatās a painā¦cockroach, whatās a cockroach? 
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Skunks used to live in this area 70 years ago and then disappeared until about 5 years agoā¦havenāt noticed any damage to the bees so far.
Now if I can just train those bears to use the doorā¦got any ideas Dawn_SD?
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ā¦leave it open 
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Well, you could follow @Evaās suggestion, or I have another idea which would allow the bees to stay warm if the bear wasnāt interestedā¦ You could leave the door unlocked, but put a lever-style handle on it, and wrap some bacon around the handle. I think that would train the bear pretty quickly. The hard thing would be training it to close the door again after it was doneā¦
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My dog and my sons will be right behind the bear. One of them might remember to close the door.
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More chance on the dog closing the door these days Eva than the kids these days. 
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All too true, Pete 
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Well the experiment accomplished 1/2 of what I hoped it wouldā¦but my hands were tied for two reasons: weaker/slower than normal colonies (New Zealand packages were not available in Canada due to Covidā¦what a disaster for many beekeepers here!) and August (the month traditionally when the largest portion of the honey flow occurs) was a bust with only 3 good flying days out of 30. So there just werenāt all essential elements in place to fill the frames completely and then have them capped.
But that other 1/2 of the experiment that was encouraging was that the bees occupied all three modified supers on the hive (no hesitation to use that expanded inter-frame space), built absolutely no burr comb anywhere in the supers, and stored what little nectar that was available in the frames. So I donāt have a conclusion at this pointā¦perhaps next year. Will try to get a photo for you ABB of the simple frame spacing mechanism.
Ironically the month of September turned out to be a distinct departure weatherwise from Augustā¦but by then the supers were off and the hives prepped for fall. Years ago a commercial beekeeper had told me he didnāt rush to remove his supers in the fallā¦there was always 1 year in 20 that the fall could produce a heavy flow. At the end of August, second cut alfalfa was blooming so I decided to throw a brood box under my normal wintering singlesā¦and am I ever glad I didā¦hives brought in a box more of top grade honey (only for winter feed) and fall brooded right upā¦queens were pushed down into the bottom brood boxes.
So they are in fine form going into winter.
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Really interesting to read your posts and the amazing photos, great to read about bee keeping in other climates, conditions and issues.
What sort of temperatures are you getting in the āhive shedā? What is the story about the blue and white ātubsā laying on the floor?
30C in the shade at my apiary yesterday so back into just wearing a veil here. A very short and mild āWinterā.
Cheers Doug
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Glad you enjoy my reports of beekeeping in northern Canada Peter48.
The temperatures inside the beehouse are, for the most part controlled by the bees year round. So summer : 27C, fall 20C, and winter 5Cā¦if warranted, additional ventilation and heat is supplied. The bees are very comfortableā¦āhanging outā outside the hive if and when they feel like itā¦I let them decide. They naturally produce alot of heatā¦approx. 12watts equivalent per full depth Langstrothā¦the bldg is heavily insulated.
Re tubs: there is always honey around that is getting older/high moisture content that is unacceptable for retailing so it is fed back to the hives in the fall. Your equipment must be free of disease spores to do this.
Short winters are only a dream hereā¦hoping your spring brings an early honeyflow too!
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You leave your super on for winter survival and they has enough for the winter. What month did you remove queen excluder? Thank you
Iāll start by saying that my area is quite different than yours from a beekeeping perspectiveā¦and you really should be chatting with other beekeepers in your area to get a feel for what has worked for them.
In a normal seasonā¦is there such a thing? 
ā¦all honey supers and queen excluders sitting above the single brood chambers are removed by the 3rd week of Augustā¦thatās typically the earliest time that the honey may stop being produced. Varroa treatment and pollen patties are added at this time. If you are in a warmer climate where the honeyflow stops shortly after spring/early summer, you may be doing this much earlier.
Some years I will add a second brood boxā¦some years I winter in singles. If wintering in singles, I have to be prepared to supplement feed in late fall and earlier the next springā¦many commercial beekeepers in Canada winter indoors in singles. Double brood chambers setups often are used for wintering outside in my area with insulated wraps around 4 packs (4 hives back to back on a single pallet base).
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Thank you for the information. Just trying too get an idea from others on what they thought
Love the bees!
Thank you for all your very helpful information.
Well its been a long time since my last posting and please donāt complain about the off topic bits.
Bee wise not a lot has been happening. But that a little later.
The past 9 months have been filled with multiple Ultrasounds, MRIās, CAT scans, Xrays, angiograms, cystoscopies biopsies, and a whole lot of other stuff with weird names, but all leading to what our surgeons call operations. They call it an āoperationā because they canāt find another name for sticking things in every orifice of the body (usually at the same time), while they rearrange the bits inside. The upshot is that I have had bits cut and pasted (double bypass) and bits diced and sliced (radical prostatectomy), all in quick succession. Has taken me nearly 80 years to get a bed in a hospital and I am hoping not to see another for at least the next 20 years. So apart from the gory detail, thereās not much else to tell there.
Perhaps a quick story. Prior to my bypass the anaesthetist asked if I had ever had an aesthetic before. I said yes and he asked when. I said when I was 12 years old I had to have teeth out at the hospital. In the days before my family had a car, I rode my pushbike, by myself, a bit over 3kms (2 miles), was put under, the teeth were pulled and when it was over, rode my pushbike home. He sort of laughed, thought it was a story, not sure he believed it and moved on. It wasnāt that we were any tougher in those days it was just how it was. I digressed.
Back to the bees. Thanks to the Flow Hives I was able to get a nice harvest in late November -early December 2020, partly due to the Marri trees flowering about 8 weeks earlier than normal and partly because I was between doctors at the time. Not only was the nectar flow early but the honey was very low in water and frames averaged around 15% water. Consequently, almost all of that honey has now crystalized. I donāt mind that.
This Winter has been a paradox with regards the food. It has been available but not able to be utilized The Jarrah trees have been flowing since June (normal for a tiny area around here) and with magnificent blossom, the best in many many years but the bees havenāt been able to make use of it. We have had countless wet, very windy (50-100 Km/hr) and colder than normal days when the bees just didnāt fly. July for example had 29 rainy days compared with the average of 16 rainy days. The hives have strong activity on the better days and just observing the hive windows, the available honey has not diminished. It gets moved about a bit but there is still quite a bit I can see.
I have a feeling we are in for a bumper honey season in the South West of Western Australia this year. With a bit of luck I will be a bit more active around the place and post some of the latest projects here on completion.
Big PS for DDā¦ I did manage 
Big PS for Skegs ā¦ I have taken some more mulberry cuttings and will let you know in Oct- Nov if they have taken. I donāt give up lightly 
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