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Author Topic: Ventilated Tops  (Read 11636 times)

Offline gaucho10

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Re: Ventilated Tops
« Reply #20 on: September 01, 2009, 11:10:27 pm »
I have posted this here before.
I made my own upper ventilated covers for all 4 of my hives.  They work great.  I use them in conjunction with my SBB.  I slide the SBB tray into the closed position for the winter but I do not insulate the upper ventilated cover.  I only have one center hole that I use to peek at the bees throughout the winter months and use it for feeding when necessary.  Towards the end of the winter the bees are near the top and I just simply invert a bottle of honey to feed them till the spring flow.  No diseases yeat considering I don't medicate or feed sugar :-D

Here in Massachusetts the winter temps do drop down below freezing.  Also, as far as upper door...I cut a 3/8 inch gap directly underneath at the front similar to an inner cover.  The bees start using this upper opening as their main entrance sometime around December when they are starting to work their way up.  I still leave the bottom entrance available so that I can scrape dead bees out throughout the winter but then put a mouse guard.
 



My favorite comedy program used to be Glenn Beck--The only thing is that after I heard the same joke over and over again it became BOOOORING.....

People who have inspired me throughout my life---Pee-wee Herman, Adolph Hitler, George W. Bush, Glenn Beck.
Notice I did not say they were people who I admire !!!

Offline David LaFerney

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Re: Ventilated Tops
« Reply #21 on: September 14, 2009, 10:51:06 pm »
Gaucho10 - when you feed does that effectively block the air flow through your ventilated top? 

In my area it actually does get pretty cold - single digits (normal) or even below zero at times (rare times) but usually not for more than a week or so at a time.  Teens or twenties overnight and highs 15 -20 degrees warmer. 

Most of the bee keepers in my area just winter in uninsulated hives with bottom entrances, but lately they've been having high losses.  One I talked to today (30 years experience) lost 10 out of 25 hives last winter.

I still haven't decided, but the consensus (with notable exceptions)  seems to call for top ventilation.
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Samuel Clemens

Putting the "ape" in apiary since 2009.

Offline beee farmer

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Re: Ventilated Tops
« Reply #22 on: September 14, 2009, 11:03:56 pm »
I made some of those fancy vented tops.. here in the south the girls propolized them up faster than I could take em off and remove the propolis.  I went to one similar to Mike Bush's.. I just prop one end open with a slice of 3/8 plywood.. works wonderful and no prop.
"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do"  Benjamin Franklin

Offline gaucho10

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Re: Ventilated Tops
« Reply #23 on: September 14, 2009, 11:13:39 pm »
David LaFerney,

"Gaucho10 - when you feed does that effectively block the air flow through your ventilated top?"

No it does not for two reasons.  First, I feed using a 1/2 gal. jar with its cover perforated only half way across.  I can rest the bottle with only 1/2 its cover on the edge of the opening.  I can also feed using that same jar by placing the jar on a circular metal bar that I formed out of a plant hanger ((1/4" solid metal bar).  This bar fits right over the hole resting along the edges but it keeps the bottle raised approximately 1/4" above the opening so that air continues to flow through the opening and out through the small 1" perforated/screened holes along the side. (Pewff...run on sentence!!!!!!!)
Someone asked before if the bees could reach the perforated jar cover if the jar was resting on a screened covering over the hole.  I believe that it was Michael Bush that answered that question in the affirmative.

If you notice my hive, the outside is covered with 1" insulation which I remove in the Spring.  That would deffinitely not be the way to go if you have many hives.  In m case I only have 5 at present and this is all a game/experiment to me anyway. :evil: :-D
 
My favorite comedy program used to be Glenn Beck--The only thing is that after I heard the same joke over and over again it became BOOOORING.....

People who have inspired me throughout my life---Pee-wee Herman, Adolph Hitler, George W. Bush, Glenn Beck.
Notice I did not say they were people who I admire !!!

 

anything