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  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #12103  by Alfred
 20 Oct 2021, 11:27
I shyed away from landing boards as they were extra leverage for the pest deer but tried them on a few ,eventually converting all the stands
I noticed recently the large boards were thourorly splattered from front to back with ivy pollen,so either the incoming were intensively hawked by something or theres been some major crash landings.
 #12104  by MickBBKA
 21 Oct 2021, 00:28
Have to agree with the landing boards. In the Spring temps can change by 7c or 8c in minutes very quickly, I also set the entrances wide open so the bees have the best chance of getting back in. There are often so many posts on social media about bees being poisoned and dying on return to the hive fully loaded with pollen in the Spring. People just don't realise what is happening, I didn't in times gone past. Hand full of bees in a jar and popped on the top of the smoker and they are flying in no time once they get warmed up.
 #12109  by AdamD
 21 Oct 2021, 16:08
My 5 frame wooden nucs are big enough for bees to get through winter - although they might need feed come Feb or March. However ones with a small ventillation hole - with mesh - tend to get mouldy outside frames compared with ones that have better ventillation.
I agree that a hive with a small cluster of bees compared to it's size will more likely have mouldy combs compared to a well-stocked one. This is also the case with polystyrene ones.
 #12271  by Spike
 08 Dec 2021, 18:49
A wooden hive in winter sun can get quite warm to the touch so that warmth could heat up the hive enough so the bees fly when they would stay inside in a polly hive.
Black wooden hives for winter and white in summer?
 #12281  by MickBBKA
 11 Dec 2021, 00:46
Having just rescued a colony from a fallen tree in about -2c with a inch or so of snow on the ground one thing I can say is that the interior colony temp was probably 20c+ above the ambient air temp. This experience would indicate that direct sun probably makes little difference to flying as they are already warm enough, which does rather contradict some of my other theories. Bees ehh ? :D
 #12284  by Alfred
 11 Dec 2021, 19:04
From midwinter onwards my timber boxes have thermal wraps and 4" kingspan ekes on top.
You can open up on a cold day and warm your hand's on the perspex crownboards so I'm guessing your +20 is a conservative estimate Mick.
 #12286  by AdamD
 12 Dec 2021, 15:04
Very noticable if you take off a slab of celotex and feel the temperature of the crown board compared to a crownboard with no insulation on it.