Possible Problem w/ Excessive Moisture

[bassman1977]

I went down to the hives today and noticed that on the inside of the bottom board there were a bunch of dead bees piled up.  Since it's been a little warmer the past few days (low 40s), I thought it would be a good idea to clean these bees out so the live ones don't get trapped inside.  When doing so, I pulled out a couple hundred dead bees which looked pretty moist.  So, out of curiousity, I opened the hive too see if there was anything alive in there.  Luckily there was, and once I put the covers back on, I was greeted with a healthy BZZZZZZZZZZZ and even a few flew out of the hive to greet me fact to face.  The bottom cover did have some moisture on it.  

During the fall I installed a screened frame (about 2 inches tall) with holes drilled into the sides, in order to help with ventilation.  

Now I know that dead bees are to be expected while wintering, how much is too much?  Do those moist bees suggest excessive moisture?  I opened the SBB on both hives about 1/4 of the way to help remedy this problem.  If this is really an issue, what can I do at this point to help them?  My other hive had dead bees too, but probably half of what the other hive had.

[Michael Bush]

Are they just "recently dead" moist or "condensation" moist?  They should dry out, actually.

[bassman1977]

Recently moist.  Although I'm not sure how recently.  It's been since the end of October to early November since I've looked at anything down there.

[Anonymous]

During the fall I installed a screened frame (about 2 inches tall) with holes drilled into the sides, in order to help with ventilation.

I'm curious, where did you install this frame?

[bassman1977]

On top of the in between the inner board and outer cover.

[Finsky]

It is better to bee upper entrance that air and moisture circulates down in and from top out.  I opened yesterday one 5-frame hive and it really was moist because it did not had upper entrance. It's back corners were wet because of condensation water.

Of course bees died at winter. Some come out and some die in hive.
If abdomen of bee is very swollen it might be nosema. When I have had hives with poor ventilation 50% or more will die in winter.

No one can tell what is proper number to die. A lot of bees come out to die.

I have now ne hive. It have cleaned all he winter it's bottom board and carried out dead ones. And major tits pick them away.

[bassman1977]

So do you think I should keep the hives the way they are (with the SBB 1/4 open) or put them back the way they were (SBB closed)?  Wind really isn't a problem at the hives' locations.  Heck, they may even be ok the way they were.  I just don't have anything to refer to as far as past over-wintering experience.  The guy I usually go to locally is in FL right now and I don't have his contact information.

[Anonymous]

I'd think that if you have that much ventilation up top, you could close the bottom all the way without any problem.

[Finsky]

On top of the in between the inner board and outer cover.

When you take off inner cover, you see how much you have moisture. When I opened my hives 4 days ago ( -10C) one hice inner cover was really wet.

In a big hive, where ball was down stairs, there was ice crystals in four corners , but not much.   Its is better to train to see yourself. "Remote control" wihtout knowledge  is not good.

[bassman1977]

The inner board had only a small 2"x3" spot with condensation (which was close to the hole).  The remainder of the board was dry.  My other hive, which I don't think has any problem, that inner cover was dry as a bone.  I'm going to keep the SBBs open until it gets real cold again.  It's supposed to be in the mid-40s this week (or so they say).