long hives bearding

windfall · July 21, 2011, 06:58:43 PM

Is there something about the long hive that makes it more prone to bearding?

I know it's hot and heavy, but none of the other hives are doing it at all. My long hive has been doing it on and off since the end of june, even after I took 2, 4-frame splits out of it.

From what I gather this is normal behavior, but I just keep thinking I should be doing something different.

My one obvious choice is to install the screened panel I built for the thing and then decided not to use...it amounts to a third of the length, and the solid bottom should just pop off with a few screws. I just keep thinking our weather will return to normal and so have put it off because normally our nights drop into the low 50's.

does anybody else have long hives alongside langs and see a difference?

caticind · July 21, 2011, 07:20:22 PM

I saw no difference in bearding between a long with a screened bottom and a lang with a screened bottom, when I had both last year. Can't speak to how they perform with a solid bottom board.

What kind of entrances do you have on them?

windfall · July 21, 2011, 07:40:48 PM

I have a 10" X 3/8 slot along the bottom and opened a 4X3/8 along the top (both on front). due to the design of the lid, the top entrance probably doesn't help with venting as it is "indirect" or covered/overhung by the telescoping cover...and they cover it completely 2-3" deep with clustered bees while bearding.

Overall, I have really enjoyed the long hive and found it super easy to use. But in this regard it is quite different than all 3 others and that sort of raises flags in my mind.

gardeningfireman · July 21, 2011, 08:30:40 PM

I have 2 TBH's, 4 Langs, and 2 nucs in my yard. One TBH seems to always have one to two hundred bees on the "front porch", and one of the nucs has its entrance sealed up with propolis except for a 1/4" hole that the bees can just squeeze through. Other than that, everything appears normal.

Michael Bush · July 22, 2011, 01:26:42 AM

I have both vertical and horizontal hives. The population, the heat, the sunlight they are exposed to, how crowded they are affects this. I don't think vertical or horizontal do.

T Beek · July 22, 2011, 10:55:14 AM

A couple weeks ago w/ temps in the 90's all of my hives had bees 'on the porch' but my Long Hive had a big beard. I just propped up the migratory cover another 1/8 " (turned on end a little piece of wood used for this purpose) and they calmed right down. If I hadn't caught it in time I'm afraid they would have hit the trees.

thomas

windfall · July 22, 2011, 07:01:02 PM

I have been thinking I might change my cover design. Right now I have a series of 4" inner covers with 3 vented telescoping covers on top of that. The idea was to allow internal division end to end, and possible supering.

This morning I swapped out the solid bottom on the front of the hive for a screen that is equal to 10 frames.....it was like throwing a switch, no bearding at all today with the same weather conditions. there are about a dozen bees trying to get in through the screen but hopefully they will figure that out.

I am thinking of throwing the other screen panel on the other end of the hive where I stuck a split 10 days ago. They are still bearding but nowhere near as badly as the parent hive was Still proportionate to the number of frames in that end they may be similar.

FRAMEshift · July 24, 2011, 11:41:31 PM

I have one long hive that beards regularly even when others do not. I think it's the bees. Doesn't hurt anything and I don't worry about it.

windfall · July 25, 2011, 09:16:51 AM

That's interesting Frameshift.
I had been wondering if a particular colony might be more prone to the behavior....with our tiny sample size the question of am I seeing a typical behavior pattern or one particular to the colony is always popping up. Thanks for the input, I was hoping you wold chime in with your long hive experience.

caticind · July 25, 2011, 11:29:51 AM

Quote from: windfall on July 22, 2011, 07:01:02 PM
there are about a dozen bees trying to get in through the screen but hopefully they will figure that out.

They'll figure out how to get inside, but you'll probably continue to see bees hanging out under the screen. My long hives usually have a thin layer of bees hanging upside down from the screen. Some are fanning, while others are foragers passing nectar and water through the screen to the house bees inside.