Since I figured out how to post photos, here is a photo of the bee heaters I mentioned in my earlier post for old computer power supplies. Obviously these are NOT necessary for full sized hives, but if you’re an experimenter or just playing around with some smaller colonies, these can be fun to play with.
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ImageShack.usI would include a photo of the finished potted up heaters, but they’re all in my hives :-D We’re expecting 0F this week.
There are numerous ways to make heat, the nice attribute of this approach is the surface of the heater doesn’t get extremely hot and it doesn’t put off visible light. I’ve used 1.8 Ohm resistors here because they were cheap but any resistors will work as long as you check your math and don’t exceed the power rating of each resistor.
If you don’t have a spare computer power supply, a landscaping light transformer will work too; 12Volts AC in that case. It is nice to have a thermostat on your system too so you don’t overheat your bees!