Why bees get Hot, and what to do about them.

[van from Arkansas]

Mr. Beavo, I always appreciate, enjoy your post;  1.  You are knowledgeable and 2. You are in the other side of the planet.

Being on the other side of the planet I would like to ask about your weather regarding bees?  Anything unusual thus year?

I ask because in my area, the weather is very strange: constant rain and very cool.  My honey production this year is a bust as the Spring flow has been to cold and wet for my bees to forage.  Our Fall flow is very minor in this forested area we call the Ozarks so Spring is the mainstay.  I have lost 2 batches of queens due to chill, like in the 40F for weeks when normal is 55F.

Cheers and keep posting Mr. Beavo.

[Ben Framed]

We loaded 64 hives onto our trailer at 6pm, they spent the night on the trailer, at 4am we drove them 300 kms, last 6km on gravel road with the next 3km of forest track.
Unloaded them, bit of smoke at the door and opened them at their new location. No hive went ballistic and we could work other hives next to them.
If your select for temperament you end up with quiet bees.
You can make excuses for fizzy bees for ever, but in the end you still have fizzy bees.

Thanks Oldbeavo....

[minz]

I had a hive earlier this year like I had never seen. I had bee problems with stinging 75 yards away. Went in and done inspections and when I opened up #7 it was insane! I had full jacket on and denim and was covered in angry bees by the time I got the super off. I backed out and tried it again the next day better mentally prepared. I did find that I had a tear in my vale though. I took at least 3 stings to the left eyebrow plus others in the face. My denim had hundreds of stings in it by the time I got the boxes apart (moved it in half). The bees followed me through the bushes, 75 yards up and into the dark garage. My pants were furry with bees and stingers. I corrected the situation with some large black garbage bags that evening. I did call up KathyP and ask her if she wanted them before I put it down!

[.30WCF]

If they are otherwise gentle bees, and you?re only worried about when you dump honey all over their house, can you force them to abscond with smoke into a box rigged to the entrance or vacuum them out? If you can get the hive empty, you can clean the burr and wayward comb and dump them back in.


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[Ben Framed]

Minz, did Kathy take them? 

[FloridaGardener]

If they are otherwise gentle bees... can you ... vacuum them out? If you can get the hive empty, you can clean the burr and wayward comb and dump them back in.

Great idea actually, for rogue or burr comb, to treat it like a cutout if you have a bee vac.  The vac always wins.  Just takes a long time.  When the weather is warm the brood wouldn't be lost.  I leave the nurse bees on anyway, when rubber banding a cutout, they're only singing sadly - not stinging madly.

[Oldbeavo]

Why cut out burr comb, the bees have put it there for a reason, bracing etc.
You are on a hiding as they will probably rebuild it back where they want it.
We have 15 year old hives that are left to their own devices, we inspect frames and put them back. We have some hives that may never have all the frames taken out at once, especially if we find the queen, or are satisfied with our inspection.

[minz]

Minz, did Kathy take them?

nope!
Put them in couple of black plastic garbage bags.

[.30WCF]

Why cut out burr comb, the bees have put it there for a reason, bracing etc.
You are on a hiding as they will probably rebuild it back where they want it.
We have 15 year old hives that are left to their own devices, we inspect frames and put them back. We have some hives that may never have all the frames taken out at once, especially if we find the queen, or are satisfied with our inspection.

My suggestion wasn?t intended to just clean the hive up. Of course the hive would be modified to proper tolerances once it was workable with out getting lit up.


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