Well the East winds of death have arrived as I knew they would and my bees were dying in their hundreds in front of the hives the other day.
What happens here is the sun rises and warms the hives and land, the bees warm and go out foraging in the warm sun. As the land warms by about 10am or 11am it causes the land air to rise bringing freezing air from the coast behind it. Bees come back fully laden with forage and the ones that land around the hive for a breather are cold shocked by the massive drop in temperature. This reduces their body temp very quickly and prevents them from taking back off and flying into the entrances and so they huddle on the ground until they die in masses. Teesside is a god awful place to keep bees. So like today, I set off this morning to help them out. It was 15c when I left at 10am and 8c, a freezing wind and pouring with rain by 1.00pm when I returned. It varies day to day. So having watched 'The Cruel Sea' the other week on TV ( great Sunday old movie) I decided to create some scramble nets so even if they are too cold to fly they can still crawl up to the entrances and they work great. I find keeping bees here just a constant battle to mitigate the local weather pockets.
What happens here is the sun rises and warms the hives and land, the bees warm and go out foraging in the warm sun. As the land warms by about 10am or 11am it causes the land air to rise bringing freezing air from the coast behind it. Bees come back fully laden with forage and the ones that land around the hive for a breather are cold shocked by the massive drop in temperature. This reduces their body temp very quickly and prevents them from taking back off and flying into the entrances and so they huddle on the ground until they die in masses. Teesside is a god awful place to keep bees. So like today, I set off this morning to help them out. It was 15c when I left at 10am and 8c, a freezing wind and pouring with rain by 1.00pm when I returned. It varies day to day. So having watched 'The Cruel Sea' the other week on TV ( great Sunday old movie) I decided to create some scramble nets so even if they are too cold to fly they can still crawl up to the entrances and they work great. I find keeping bees here just a constant battle to mitigate the local weather pockets.
