A new video in our Beekeeping 101 aka Beginning Beekeeping video series. We had a real hot summer, like everyone else, and honeybees can overheat just like we can. So when I went out to the beehives in the heat of the summer, I made a video about how a beekeeper can ventilate or keep a beehive cool in the summer heat. If you see lots of bees climbing around you hive, it may be that the hive is too warm. Watch this beginning beekeeping video to learn more
JB
I watch and enjoy your videos they are always interesting & informative and every time I watch I seem to have some question comment or thought about them so here is this weeks.
Q- If you pop the top off a hive dosent that make it harder to defend if the hive were to be attached by another colony ?
T- Wouldent an old piece of screen or cheesecloth be good to put over the gap you just made ?
Q- When you have open containers of water lying around wont that just be a big breeding bucket for mosquitos ? There was just a death here in MASS from EEE.
T- I see that your hives are up on 4 legged tables what if you went and got a couple of those water bottles that they use in hamster or rabbit cages and just strapped them to the leg of one of the table. The bees could hang on to the stem and drink and you wouldent have all that water standing around.
Q- Why are bee hives white ?
Guy
I used sponges for bee life rafts. Not my idea but I wanted to pass it along. Keep up the good work.
admin
sponges are a great idea, they are probably good for the bees to grab onto. eric.
admin
glad you like the show!
venting the top in the middle of the summer: the hive is at its strongest in summer when its population swells, so they are fine. there is always the chance of robbing, but its less than the potential for overheating. there are inner covers made that have large screened vents, am looking into them for our hives.
standing water: its the price i pay for feeding the bees, i imagine you could use a hamster water bottle.
white beehives is tradition more than anything, from what i know. many people paint them whatever color oops paint the get from the store.
thanks eric.
Beverly
what is the difference between clover honey and manuka honey? Is it the process?
Eric Gunnar Rochow
never heard of manuka honey, a web search may help you. thx. eri c
andrew
Manuka honey is simply honey made by bees that pollinated manuka bushes so the flower that the bees derived their honey from is the difference (clover vs manuka). I believe manuka are native to new zealand so I don't think you'll find much local manuka honey in the US
Chad Gard
Another couple of watering and ventilating ideas...
Water: I used chicken waterers this year. The gravity feed kind that have a 2 gallon reservoir draining into a round open trough. $1 each at places like TSC when they have chicks available. Fill the trough with stones and pea gravel. This leaves no place for mosquitoes to breed, and makes it easy for the bees to avoid drowning. Butterflies liked it, too.
Ventilation: Have you tried Imirie Shims? They're a 3/4" tall, well, shim that goes between supers (not deeps!), with an entrance on the front. The idea is to put one between every-other super. So, from bottom, you'd have deep-deep-maybe a queen excluder-super-shim-super-super-shim... etc.f
The Imirie shim gives you better ventilation, but you can still secure the lid tight against marauding critters. It also gives an entrance for the workers above the brood chamber. That makes the hive "feel" less crowded, because workers laden down with nectar don't have to enter the bottom and work their way up through a whole crowded brood chamber to deposit your honey-to-be.
The theory sounds great to me. This was our first year using them, and it was a lousy honey year for everyone in the area (except some friends who's hive are at a spearmint farm...), so while we had a super filled really early, they ate it all before the buckwheat bloomed, and we didn't get any to harvest. So, not a definitive year. But, our bees didn't seem to be working as hard to cool their hives as our neighbor's did...