Basic arrangements for moisture for winter

[Finsky]

Winter arrangement for moisture are very simple if you know how to do it.

It is easy to do wrong things if you listen all what others recommend to you.
Beekeeping is hundreds of years old  and you cannot as rookie find new system.

Don't risk toy hives when you invent your own wheel

# If you have screened bottom, you need not more arrangements, not even upper entrance.
But screened bottom allow winds go inside hive and it adds food consumption even 50% more.

# If you have insulated walls and inner cover, food consumption is 1/3 smaller than with simple solid wooden wall.

# When colony is in tight space and walls are warm, dew point goes to cold corners of hive. If hive is cold, dew point is very near of bee ball

# If inner cover have worse insulation than walls, dew point is over the beeball and droplets will go into combs
   so arrange so that condensation happens on sidewalls.

# Put hive to slant forward that water can run outside of hive, rain ater and respiration water.

# It is normal that you have ice sticks inside the hive when you look in via entrance. It means nothing.

# It is normal that you have ice cover on bottom board and bees are in splendid condition. I have had in hive electrict heaing and hive is in shelter and still it has ice cover on bottom. Heat is up and cold is down. Condensation happens down.


# When out temperature is -8C, I see ice crystals inside the hive in cold upper corners.

# If you have wooden inner cover, and it is wet, you have problems in the hive. It means that condensation happens in inner cover and it is too cold.

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UPPER ENTRANCE is very essential to let  moist respiration air escape from hive.

RESPIRATION IS  1 SUGAR + 6 OXYGEN BURNS => 6 WATER AND 6 CARBON DIOCSIDE MOLECYLES

You may see too that after rain hive  have water on bottom board. It comes via hive gaps.



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With wrapping you can may block moisture into hive.  Normal wooden box sucks water and it moves moisture through the wall.
It depend, what kind of paint cover you have and have you wrapped the hive inside plastic
And what kind of ventilation you have around the hive.

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I use in winter poly plastic boxes. They are warm but need extra water systems compared with simple wooden box. I have used American style wooden box in wintering in my early years.

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To get good hives for yield season, you need warm hives for spring build up. Then you need only pollen and your hives will grow fast.
Long spring season, when bees rise hive temperature from 23C to 32C means more food consumption and more water production.

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I have found that bees have moisture problems under snow . They do better when snow is not protecting the hive.

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If you winter bees in cellar, it must have good ventilation. In standing air hives get nosema - all hives is my experience.

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In barn like shelter bees wintering is good. They are protected from wind and rains.

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In summer you see moisture in bottom board. It means that warm moist hive air meets cold bottom. It is a dew point.  It means nothing.
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[Brian D. Bray]

>># If you have screened bottom, you need not more arrangements, not even upper entrance.
But screened bottom allow winds go inside hive and it adds food consumption even 50% more.


Use of a slatted rack between the Screened Bottom Board and the 1st brood chamber prevents this.  The slatted rack holds a thermal layer of air that mostly rebuffs any wind blowing up into the hive from the underneath.  I haven't noticed any real difference between bees on a solid bottom board and bees on a screened bottom board with slatted rack as far as stores consumption is concerned.