Got a chance to look at Bee Culture. Mitezapper does it work? Ok this for anyone above the MasonDixon Line. When it gets 20 below zero, if I plug this in will it help warm up the hive? If it is wet can you plug this in to help dry the hive. Most years around here after November 15 you can't see your hives, until some time in January(thaw). Then not again until March. Thanks for your thoughts Tony
Just to add we are still feeding Tony
It is not made to be used for a long period of time. It kills your drone brood that is in the frame. With that heat you will loose a hive in the winter. Snow is a great insulator. They will starve in the winter if it is too warm.
Allen where is your spirit of adventure? Exploration? Van De Graaff?
Mr Mud, I don't think you're going to lose a hive in the winter because of electric heat. I've done it here in Michigan and the bees came through winter 10/11 with flying colors. That was a cold winter with 65%+ losses in the State of Michigan. I didn't lose any heated hives. Bees like heat :) I have photos on this site someplace with the bees on the entrance roaming around at about 22F outside and 70F inside.
I haven't been using my heaters recently because my focus has been on improving the insulation of the hive and using the 20watts of heat the bees naturally generate to keep the hive warm.
When I was experimenting with heaters, I experimented with up to 40 watts of heat. That is a good deal of heat. My guess is the Mite Zapper draws 1 or 2 amps at 12volts, that would be 12 to 24 watts. I do not know the current draw though, just a guess. If the mite zapper only draws 2 amps, that's still less heat than I experimented with ..... and the bees lived!
If you want to heat your hive with electricity, there are probably better ways to do it than with a mite zapper. However I'm always up for an adventure :)
Yeah, but first you give them heat in the winter, then they'll be wanting cable TV.
There are plans on this forum on heating a hive for winter. Search for it. They use 2 - 7watt light bulbs I believe. And the pros and cons are posted also on that. Bees need to be in a winter cluster for winter. Insulating hives helps them out. Breaking the cluster up in the winter causes them to eat up all their stores.
Quote from: AllenF on May 02, 2012, 08:00:24 PM
There are plans on this forum on heating a hive for winter. Search for it.
Here's a good one :)
Bee heater construction: http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,32037.0.html (http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,32037.0.html)
Quote from: AllenF on May 02, 2012, 08:00:24 PM
And the pros and cons are posted also on that.
Another good one :)
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,34552.0.html (http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,34552.0.html)
Quote from: AllenF on May 02, 2012, 08:00:24 PM
Bees need to be in a winter cluster for winter. Insulating hives helps them out. Breaking the cluster up in the winter causes them to eat up all their stores.
My experience with heating bees with electricity in Michigan would technically disagree with this, but I do agree with Allen that insulation is the better way to go unless you have very small colonies you're trying to overwinter (like 2 medium frames or less).
To answer to OP question about moisture: Yes, electric heat can create bone dry conditions in the winter. That could create a new set of problems.
All this talk of winter already and we stil don't have leaves on the red oak trees here.... We did break a high temp record today though. Yipee! 83F. It hasn't been that hot here since March :-D
What is really bad is most of my bees are blonde, and my nasty ones are black,started as sunkist but kicked out the light colored queens. They were the only ones to make any honey last year, rain and cold last summer. I was thinking just for heat when it gets cold -20 Tony
Tony, you're not the only one who thinks a little heat at -20F is a good thing. There are other people on here who have contemplated that too. I've done it, but I've switched over to super insulation instead of electric for my normal hives and nucs. Just a little easier to deal with than running cords all over the yard. My bees have really exploded this spring, might be all the insulation, can't say for sure however I collected a double basket ball sized swarm from one of my jumbo frame hives tonight. Just a massive amount of bees and there is still a ton of bees left in the parent hive. That hive has 2 supers loaded with nectar already and spring is just now getting warm.
I'm going to try my hand at overwintering mini mating nucs next winter (for spare queens) and early starts. I haven't decided yet rather or not to use electric with those nucs. They have about 1.6 mediums worth of comb space.
Quote from: mudlakee on May 02, 2012, 09:24:30 PM
I was thinking just for heat when it gets cold -20 Tony
I use to do just that with 2 night lights. Cheap, simple and it worked well.
(http://www.bushkillfarms.com/gallery2/d/590-1/IMG_0630.JPG)
I now use beemax polystyrene hives with 2" insulation board covers with no upper ventilation and they stay toasty and dry on their own.
My experience also disagrees with Allen's statement. This year was the warmest winters we have had that I can remember. I had a BeeMax nuc that still had 4 1/2 frames of honey this March. I had to remove a couple frames of honey to give the queen room to lay.
Quote from: BlueBee on May 02, 2012, 09:20:05 PM
Quote from: AllenF on May 02, 2012, 08:00:24 PM
Bees need to be in a winter cluster for winter. Insulating hives helps them out. Breaking the cluster up in the winter causes them to eat up all their stores.
My experience with heating bees with electricity in Michigan would technically disagree with this, but I do agree with Allen that insulation is the better way to go unless you have very small colonies you're trying to overwinter (like 2 medium frames or less).
To answer to OP question about moisture: Yes, electric heat can create bone dry conditions in the winter. That could create a new set of problems.
i have used heating now 9 years.
First, you must know what you do. Heating is not the reason, if you do it wrong way.
It is easy to see how bees react to the heater. Bees must be in rest. Otherwise they do not survive over 7 months winter rest.
Heating does make hive too dry. At least I have not found that.
.i dot not put heater under the cluster in winter. bee collect themselves around the heater. It is like a main cluster in a big hive.
In spring I use bottom heating 6-15W
as said, insulated hive is the first what you should do. It is: bye polyboxes.
.
Thanks for the ideas. It gets real cold then it warms up for while wet then back cold. Warm this weekend I hope. We had a very easy winter this year.Thanks again for the ideas. Tony