After writing a post about upper entrances in winter, I received a lot of mail from beekeepers who insisted that an upper entrance in winter would place the colony at risk of freezing. My own experience with upper ventilation has been the exact opposite, and my colonies have thrived since I began using upper ventilation […] Read more
Back in November, Bill Reynolds of Viking, Minnesota began monitoring the inside of his beehives for temperature. He purchased an inexpensive desktop weather forecasting station with three remote wireless sensors for his project, and he used a fourth sensor to monitor the ambient outside air. The data for the first weeks can be found in […] Read more
Do you ever wonder where your winter colony is? Or how big? Yesterday, Kevin O’Donnell of Arlington Heights, Illinois sent us some awesome photos that answer those exact questions. Kevin is a specialist in insulated packaging systems, especially those that pertain to drug products. As a result, he has a fascination with thermal regulation inside […] Read more
Honey bees do not heat their hives the way we heat our homes. Instead, they concentrate on keeping the cluster warm by vibrating their flight muscles. The center of the cluster is the warmest part of the hive, and the temperature drops as you move out from the center. The interior of the hive is […] Read more
For this fifth installment of the Physics for beekeepers series, I’ve decided to use this recent question, which is representative of several I’ve received this month. “I’ve heard that some beekeepers leave a medium super of honey on the hive ‘just in case.’ But others say do not leave the hives with an over-abundance of […] Read more
. . . or “learning about bees from your cat” Here is something any feline will tell you: a sphere is a shape with a high volume to surface area ratio. The surface of an object is the part exposed to air, so it’s the surface where things gain or lose heat. Things wrapped up […] Read more
Lots of folks want to know if bees consume more food in warm winters or cold winters. I’ve been searching for scientific data on this for quite a while but I haven’t found any. So, for what it’s worth, I hereby offer my opinion. Based on hearsay and my own beekeeping experience, I believe that […] Read more