Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Hemlock on October 12, 2011, 05:42:10 pm
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What is the smallest nuc (number of frames with bees that is) anyone has gotten through Winter.
I'm in the Mid-Atlantic Region with moderate winters.
Thanks.
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I have bitter cold winters. In a nuc (five to eight frames) grouped together for warmth with styrofoam top and bottom and feral bees which seem to winter better with a smaller cluster than other bees, I've seen a softball size cluster make it to spring. By itself and not clustered together I do not believe they would make it and many of them that size do not make it.
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Thanks MB.
I have a late swarm that i was planning to combine with another colony. Turns out they are nicely productive and she's a good layer. Might have some good genetics there (except for the whole late swarming thing). Just toying with the options.
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My observation hive overwinters with 1/2 medium frame of bees. Not well, but the point is if they are protected and warm enough even a small cluster can make it.
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I have a late swarm that i was planning to combine with another colony. Turns out they are nicely productive and she's a good layer. Might have some good genetics there (except for the whole late swarming thing). Just toying with the options.
Instead of a complete combine, you could just move a few frames of bees from another colony into the swarm hive. That will give them the "critical mass" to get through winter without making you sacrifice a good queen. Of course, this is IF you have some frames of bees to spare.
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2 deep frames of bees with electric heat.
Downside is it takes a full season (or more) for 2 frames of bees to grow into a full hive.
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One our professional has met surely the smalles colony after winter: a queen and 5 workers.
He did not tell, how big was the hive in autumn.
It is not rare that you have one langstroth box full of bees in Autumn, and in April you have a coffee cup size cluster. Nosema or something else do that.
Last winter I had 2 frames of bees in the electrict heated nuc. Half of bees died during winter.
Bad weathers killed bees more after cleansing flight. Finally it was not able to rear brood.
i must take all workers from big hives to get the mini nuc to a normal hive before main yield.
Small nucs over winter makes only harm.
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2 deep frames of bees with electric heat.
In Michigan no less. Did they have a special setup or where they just out in the apiary?
...move a few frames of bees from another colony into the swarm hive.... Of course, this is IF you have some frames of bees to spare.
With five colonies i could but the bees are slow to put up stores this year. Most beeks i talk to around here are complaining about it. The next round of inspections i could look for a spare frame or two though. I can put five frames of honey above them and a frame of honey on each side of them now in a double nuc. I feel that would be to much space for them to heat and might kill them.
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Low in stores? - feed sugar syrup.
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The next round of inspections i could look for a spare frame or two though. I can put five frames of honey above them and a frame of honey on each side of them now in a double nuc. I feel that would be to much space for them to heat and might kill them.
We always equalize our hives before Winter. We shoot for 7 frames of bees and 4 frames of honey in each hive. As long as you can make the ratio of honey to bees that you need (you probably need more honey than we do) and you have a critical mass for a good cluster, you will be fine. If you move bees and honey at the right ratio at the same time, you have not damaged your other hives and you have helped your swarm hive.
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Low in stores? - feed sugar syrup.
Have been feeding for a month now. Will check stores this weekend.
Hey Finski, When do you go into endless night up there?
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Hey Finski, When do you go into endless night up there?
up or down, Mr Polar Bear?
South Finland is at same level as Anchorage Alaska.
We have not endless day here.
In the northest point of Finland, on the Norwegian border, is 1000 km from south point. Thre enless day lasts 74 days from 16.5 to 29.7.
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We always equalize our hives before Winter. We shoot for 7 frames of bees and 4 frames of honey in each hive.
7 frames of bees? my productive hives have in summer 50-60 langstroth frames
and in the end of summer I drop the number to 10 or 20.
i try to get big hives. An average they hives half has one langstroth box and half has 2 boxes.
Very seldom all hives start wintering in 2 boxes, but it happens.
All boxes are full of bees. In one box there are 10 frames of bees and in two box 15- 20 frames.
If one box is not full, I join 2-3 week or take one box from big hive when I bring them to home yard.
The strengt fo hives depends much, have they red clover pastures near hive in August.
Big hives are easy to over winter. They take care themselves.
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One our professional has met surely the smalles colony after winter: a queen and 5 workers.
He did not tell, how big was the hive in autumn.
A queen and 5 workers is enough to make heat to raise brood in the spring?
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I like Frameshift’s and Finski's plan for dealing with small colonies. If you have bees to spare, it really helps out a small colony to give them more frames of bees before winter. I move around frames of brood in my nucs to boost the weak and throttle the strong. Typically in September. Triple check all frames you're moving to make certain you don't move a queen along with the bees.
If you want to try to winter a small colony of 2 frames outside, you need electric heat. My apiary is my back yard, so I just run an extension cord back to the hive to provide electric heat. Do a search on “bee heater” on this site and you’ll find a lot of my posts about using and making the things. My nucs are insulated which retains more of the electric heat and makes them cheaper to run.
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even one frame is not enough.
That 5 workers were found in the hive. They are not capable even heat themselves.
But how they were ther?
It must be so, that odor of queen has not been strong enough and bees have moved to the next door hive. It has happened to me.
Quite often I have had twist size colony in spring. Nosema has killed the workers.
Last spring I had a hive with 4 frames of bees. There was one frame of brood. A month later thee was one frame of bees, the queen did not lay and no brood. It must be nosema which destroyed the colony in April. Unluckily I reared virginfs just from this hive.
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Thanks for the clarification Finski. That makes a lot more sense.
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I overwintered a Sept. swarm, softball size, last year in a two-story five-frame medium nuc. I did add a frame or two of brood along with way and fed, fed, fed. The girls survived great, but we had a fairly mild winter and I kept them sheltered up on my back porch out of the wind.
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2 deep frames of bees with electric heat.
Downside is it takes a full season (or more) for 2 frames of bees to grow into a full hive.
not in a 0.4K polyurethane foam hive... The differential equations of growth really do favour bottom ventilation and high insulation according to the bees I'm looking at right this minute. Queened in August they fill the hive now drawing all frames
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My bees must have flunked DE since it HAS taken a 2 frame spring colony a full season to grow to a full sized hive in real life in Michigan. We’re talking 2 frames of adult bees here, not 2 frames of brood + adults.
A deep frame has over 6000 cells each, so 2 deep frames would be over 12000 cells. Filled 70% with brood that is 8400 new bees along with the existing bees if you’re talking about a summer split. That’s about 11,000 adult bees in a nuc when the brood hatches. Yes, THAT many bees can then build up fairly quickly. My summer splits are usually 2 frames of bees (+brood on the frames) and grow to 8 to 10 frames by fall.
However 2 frames of bees in the spring is more like 3000 adult bees and 3000 adult bees don’t raise 8400 cells of brood in their first brood cycle. If you come into spring with only 3000 bees, you’re going to have a LONG summer ahead of you.
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7 frames of bees? my productive hives have in summer 50-60 langstroth frames
and in the end of summer I drop the number to 10 or 20.
Big hives are easy to over winter. They take care themselves.
Yes, we go into winter with 7 frames or more. You have 10 frames or more. Not a huge difference. If we have more then 7 frames per hive that's great, but I would not kill a queen and do a combine just to get more than 7. As long as I have a good queen and at least 7 frames of bees and 4 frames of honey, I know I will have a good cluster and come out in Spring with a fast growing colony.
So in mid February we are at maybe 5 frames of bees surviving. By mid to late March we are at 10 frames. By mid April we have 20 frames and then we split and remove the queen. Remember that we are using 33 frame horizontal hives with no supering. So 20 frames of bees will fill the other 13 frames with honey. If we start Winter with more than 10 frames of bees, we will exceed the capacity of the hive before June. Your summer hive is almost twice the size of ours, so it's fine for you to overwinter more bees/hive. But by staying in the 7-10 frame range, we can support more queens and start Spring with more healthy colonies than if we combined in order to have bigger hives.
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Here's a question. Assuming the queen lays the same amount of eggs regardless of the population, there are ready stores and forage, and the brood box is being kept at temperature by artificial means, would it be possible to build up a full sized working hive from the "minimum" in a smaller amount of time?
That of course would be in comparison to a hive that builds by natural means. The only factor I can think of that might slow or stop the process is the protein, bee milk, and royal jelly.
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Good question CapnChkn!
Last year I heated 2 frame nucs to 88F / 31C using electric heat. My controller used a thermistor for a thermostat so they never dipped below 88F, day or night. The bees were responsible for the additional 6F /4C needed to raise brood.
Despite giving the bees all the heat they needed, they didn’t raise many more brood. I was disappointed in their slow buildup. I’m not sure why they didn’t lay or raise a lot more larvae. My guess is they were pollen and water limited due to the low number of foragers, but I can’t say for certain. It would be interesting to repeat the experiment with pollen sub and a water supply inside the hive.
Maybe Finski will have some more insight into this question.
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Assuming the queen lays the same amount of eggs regardless of the population, there are ready stores and forage, and the brood box is being kept at temperature by artificial means, would it be possible to build up a full sized working hive from the "minimum" in a smaller amount of time?
The maximum rate a hive can grow is limited by the nurse bee population. The body of a nurse bee can physically cover two cells to keep them warm. So one nurse can raise two new bees. The theoretical maximum growth rate is a doubling every 21 days with each of those two new bees becoming nurse bees and each raising two more new bees. So it's exponential growth limited by nurse bees.
Lack of pollen, honey, or inefficiencies in laying or building new comb will only reduce the growth from that maximum level. The queen may lay more eggs than can be cared for by the nurse bees. The nurse bees will just eat the excess eggs.
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I have eight years' experience on elecrict heating + patty feeding in spring.
4 frames or less colonies prefere to become sick than build up.
They are in the prison of their small size.
We could imagine that we have 4 frames of bees. In practice they cover only half of frames. Practically they may rear one frame of new bees. Minimum factor is short of feeder bees.
When after a month there are one frame new urser bees, they may rear maximum 2 brood frames. The wintered bees are almost died and the new bees must first compensate the dead bees. It takes 2 months that the colony starts to grow.
In a big hive, which covers 10 frames, may rear first 4 half size brood frames. It must be lack of nurser bees. Bigger or less bigger, the brood area is the same.
But then the hives get new nurser bees. a miracle will happen. The bigger the hiver, the bigger will be the brood area. The biggest hives may generate in second generation with heating 15 frames of frood. And brood area is from frame corner to frame corner.
A 5 frame hive can make 3 frames of brood. but 15 is 5 times more than 3.
The brood area is actually a ball. It has tree dimensions. You may calculate two options, the radius of brood area is 10 cm or 15 cm. how much is the volume if radius is 5 cm bigger?
The beekeepers cannot understand that biggest hives need help. Actually small hives need help but only big hives can help them. Along Spring you may steal brood frames every now and then from big hives and get smaller normal.
so lets look the big hive which occupye allredy 2 boxes. It has 15 fat frames of brood.
When those brood have emerged, they occupye 4-5 boxes 3 weeks later.
If we have at same time 5 frames of bees and 3 fat brood frames, the colony fills only one total box. After 4 weeks the colony fills 3 box. In my country it is allready a beginning of July.
At same time the biggest hive has 6-7 boxes.
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Beginners and experienced beekeepers make usual mistake when they split in Spring big colonies. They would get a better result if they let the biggest hives grow, get a good yield and then make splits when main yield is over.
But nerves....
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Beginners and experienced beekeepers make usual mistake when they split in Spring big colonies. They would get a better result if they let the biggest hives grow, get a good yield and then make splits when main yield is over.
Your hive on scales brought in 280 lbs of honey and had no queen. So splitting off a queen can't be such a bad idea. I agree that you would not want to do an even split in the early Spring. But a small split including the queen does two things. It frees up all those nurse bees in the big hive to become foragers since they have no brood to rear. That increases the amount of honey brought in. It also gets the new hive started early enough that it has time to grow before winter. If the smaller hive is not large enough to make it through winter, there is plenty of time to move some frames of bees from the larger hive to the smaller. We always equalize hives before Winter.
This small split makes even more sense in our area because it decreases the total bees that need food during our dearth in July and August. A good time to split is at the beginning of the flow or maybe a couple of weeks before the beginning of the main flow.
I realize that maybe what I am saying is the same thing you are saying, since our flow is much earlier than yours. In Finland, if you split in early Summer or late Spring, you are also splitting at the beginning of the main flow.
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If you time a split to two weeks before or just at the flow (in that range) you can take all the open brood and the queen and most of the honey and start the new colony. Leave the capped brood (at least a few eggs so they can raise a new queen) at the old location. This frees up the colony to forage as there is no brood to care for, keeps them from swarming, because there isn't a queen, gets you a new young queen, and a honey crop.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm#cutdown (http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm#cutdown)
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Beginners and experienced beekeepers make usual mistake when they split in Spring big colonies. They would get a better result if they let the biggest hives grow, get a good yield and then make splits when main yield is over.
For winter bee
Your hive on scales brought in 280 lbs of honey and had no queen.
- only 2 weeks without queen
taking the queen off
- some hives looses its mind and stops foraging
- they do not forage pollen which is needed for winter bee rearing
- mostly queenless hive makes better yield but I have gived upp from this system
We always equalize hives before Winter.
- my all hives are so big that is needless. If the new queen is not able to lay 15 frames, it must go to bees' heaven. Every summer new queens will go there.
A good time to split is at the beginning of the flow or maybe a couple of weeks before the beginning of the main flow.
- I try to rear my hives as big as it is possible. I have false swarms and they are some kind of splits.
- For mainflow I join hives that they have 5-6 langstroth boxes. I combine them so that the hive has lots of foragers and brood to generate nurser bees.
I realize that maybe what I am saying is the same thing you are saying, since our flow is much earlier than yours. In Finland, if you split in early Summer or late Spring, you are also splitting at the beginning of the main flow.
- Young bees do not start to forage earlier even if they have not brood.
- I have mating nucs as many as productive hives. It is a big job to get there assistant bees. So it is better to wait that hives are maximum size when I rear queens.
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- For mainflow I join hives that they have 5-6 langstroth boxes. I combine them so that the hive has lots of foragers and brood to generate nurser bees.
So you have to find a queen among 20 frames of brood so you can remove her and combine. How do you find her quickly?
- Young bees do not start to forage earlier even if they have not brood.
I think there is pretty good evidence that there is lots of flexibility in when house bees shift to foraging. The "normal" time is 42 days from the egg but they can start in much less time if there is a shortage of foragers relative to storage bees. Even if they don't shift, they speed the work of foragers by drawing comb and quickly storing what the foragers bring in, letting the foragers get back to work faster.
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I think there is pretty good evidence that there is lots of flexibility in when house bees shift to foraging.
where is that evidence?
I have made tens of mating nucs to virgins + just emerging workes older workersgo to the old hive.
I have followed the workers and no bees carry pollen into the nuc before 2 weeks even if the queen lays.
And the rest of the hive, which leaved after swarming, they are not cabable to forage surplus even if they do not have brood to be feeded.
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where is that evidence?
I have followed the workers and no bees carry pollen into the nuc before 2 weeks even if the queen lays.
If you are seeing foragers 2 weeks after a split with new bees only, your foragers are still a week early. And I think it takes about a week for the hive to realize that it needs new foragers out of the main sequence. So the next batch might be more than a week early, but you would not see that since you are only looking for two conditions; no foragers or some foragers.
I have done some reading on polyethism in research papers and specifically in "The Hive and the Honeybee" and there is evidence presented there for flexibility in the movement of bees through the different assignment stages. The "normal" time is 42 days but the papers report foragers much younger than that if they are needed.
In an earlier post in this thread, you said, "mostly queenless hive makes better yield but I have gived upp from this system" So you have seen the effect of nurse bees being released from nursing duties and freed up for early foraging. You gave up for other reasons, not because of lack of nectar gathering and honey production.
You are right about the effect of broodlessness on pollen gathering. Here is a research article on that shows a 250% effect of brood on pollen gathering. http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=rh2c0mf36y9ax6ge&size=largest (http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=rh2c0mf36y9ax6ge&size=largest)
So maybe your foragers start at a much younger age but gather only nectar.
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Frameshift you say that population growth is limited to 2x the nurse bees because ‘1 nurse bee can only cover 2 brood cells to keep them warm’. But what if we are electrically heating the hive to the point that the nurse bees don’t need to provide any heat for those 2 brood cells? Then all the nurse bee have to do is fed larvae. With 24 hours in a day, couldn’t a nurse bee feed more than 2 larvae? I don’t know the answer, that’s why I’m asking.
I do agree with Finski that electric heat doesn’t seem to promote growth in small spring colonies. I’m still a bit baffled about why though.
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where is that evidence?
I have followed the workers and no bees carry pollen into the nuc before 2 weeks even if the queen lays.
If you are seeing foragers 2 weeks after a split with new bees only, your foragers are still a week early. And I think it takes about a week for the hive to realize that it needs new foragers out of the main sequence. So the next batch might be more than a week early, but you would not see that since you are only looking for two conditions; no foragers or some foragers.
I have done some reading on polytheism in research papers and specifically in "The Hive and the Honeybee" and there is evidence presented there for flexibility in the movement of bees through the different assignment stages. The "normal" time is 42 days but the papers report foragers much younger than that if they are needed.
In an earlier post in this thread, you said, "mostly queenless hive makes better yield but I have gived pup from this system" So you have seen the effect of nurse bees being released from nursing duties and freed up for early foraging. You gave up for other reasons, not because of lack of nectar gathering and honey production.
You are right about the effect of bloodlessness on pollen gathering. Here is a research article on that shows a 250% effect of brood on pollen gathering. http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=rh2c0mf36y9ax6ge&size=largest (http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=rh2c0mf36y9ax6ge&size=largest)
So maybe your foragers start at a much younger age but gather only nectar.
yep and on the other hand field bees still have the ability to nurse larvae they are not as good at it
but the hive can rebound from many disasters because of this its in there nature-- :) RDY-B
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[quote author=BlueBee link=topic=34986.msg290215#msg290215 date=1318796320
I do agree with Finski that electric heat doesn’t seem to promote growth in small spring colonies. I’m still a bit baffled about why though.
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it is quit possible that the bees have become protein deficient and have burned up there vitillogene reserves and cant recharge
there HYPOPHARYNGEAL GLANDS-which produce bee-milk-in til they are giving a source of protein weather natural pollen or a man made substute-give them protein to emulate a flow and they should rear brood --RDY-B
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Frameshift you say that population growth is limited to 2x the nurse bees because ‘1 nurse bee can only cover 2 brood cells to keep them warm’. But what if we are electrically heating the hive to the point that the nurse bees don’t need to provide any heat for those 2 brood cells? Then all the nurse bee have to do is fed larvae. With 24 hours in a day, couldn’t a nurse bee feed more than 2 larvae? I don’t know the answer, that’s why I’m asking.
The nurse bees keep the brood temperature within very narrow bounds. I think there is more leeway in temperature during the larval phase so it's not just a matter of competing chores.... feeding vs warming. The capped brood must be more carefully regulated because all the development steps are time critical and the rate of development depends on temperature. I guess if you could keep the temperature exactly right with an electric heater, that might free up the nurse bees somewhat. But it's not a matter of the average over the whole broodnest. Each cell must be kept within narrow bands so you can't have hot spots or cold spots. Not sure you can do that with an electric heater.
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You are right about the effect of bloodlessness on pollen gathering.
How did you quote "broodlessness" and end up with "bloodlessness"? :-D
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You are right about the effect of bloodlessness on pollen gathering.
How did you quote "bloodlessness" and end up with "bloodlessness"? :-D
spell checker scans the quote also i only proof read my stuff--nice catch--RDY-B
some of this stuff gets a litel bent to say the least- 8-)
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Brushy sells a adapter to stack a nuc on top of a 10 frame box, may be good for overwintering a weak nuc, or for that matter a double screen for stacking two low population/weak hives. Anyone tried this?
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I take ply wood and drill 1 1/2 inch holes in them
and screen both sides of the hole place on top of a strong hive and stack weak hives on top heat transfers through the holes
i call it the condo method-- :lol: RDY-B
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But what if we are electrically heating the hive to the point that the nurse bees don’t need to provide any heat
Yessir BlueBee! That's the wacky part. I've been having to think like an artist, so bear with me. This is the difference between "City Folk" and the rest of the world. Bees are wild animals after all, and even when they're being raised in the "urban" environment, they're still actually wild. It's a factor of our wanting to have ties to the "mother earth," and a sign that no matter how civilised we think we are, we rely on nature to sustain us.
We can throw all the numbers we want at the situation, but the bees didn't ger or read that memo. In the words of a Computer scientist I can't remember the name of, "Plan everything out. If you don't plan it out, it will take three times as long. If you plan it out, it will only take twice as long..." We may have those "Big Brains," but that doesn't mean much to Mischief, my cat, or Muffy, my mother's dog.
The obvious thing to do in this situation is to remove the factor tha keeps the eggs from hatching and growing to what we want out of it, BEE STEAK! Any good Cowboy would say the same. Unfortunately the bees don't want to cooperate, so we have to adjust our thinking to agree with their Concept. I can argue with them about the brooding temperature in the hive, but they're thinking in population.
Trying to put on my bee pants, which is pretty hard since I'm actually a tall guy, that this would make sense to any good mother or nanny, but the bees see the world in different ways. The logical thing to do would be to remove the bees from the incubation. Now we're going to have to feed the larvae by hand. Doggone it, I don't know if I can get the right formula or get each and every bee in there fed right. It's a pretty sure bet I can't get the nurse bees to listen to what I'm saying about the possible benefits to not eating the eggs.
"Synthesis Reconciles." If there is a solution, then guys like you, me, and the rest of us will be able to sort it out. But in order to do it, we're going to have to learn to talk bee!
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But what if we are electrically heating the hive to the point that the nurse bees don’t need to provide any heat
Yessir BlueBee! That's the wacky part. we're going to have to learn to talk bee!
i have seen what happens.....
In winter bees colect themselves on the surface of heater.
According the weather the break the cluster and make it again.
In a 4 frame nuc if the heater is too hot, bees do not use the nearby comb.
Next stage is that they vent extra heat out.
In the worst case, if the heater is too big, bees move to the walls and cold corners and totally abandon combs and brood. Brood makes heat too.
In the big hive the queen tend to lay in upper parts of the hive. If you have bottom heating the queen comes down to lay there where is the heat source.
When out tempereture is 17C and heater is 15 W, bees start to ventilate.
If the day temp is 25 C, nothing bad happens. They handle the extra heat.
Before that when I started heating in hives, I had different ind of places in my cottage yard. Windy front yard and calm back yard. in calm back yard hives developed faster and swarmed fasten than in windy place.
In windy place chalkbrood and nosema were more common than in calm place.
Aften heating the yard has not any more different build up places.
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well back to the DRAWING BOARD --EHHH-- :lol: RDY-B
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I have seen the same things that Finski reports in my electric heating experiments. If the hive gets too hot the bees abandon the comb and go to the walls just like Finski says! It’s a strange thing to see.
The electric heat system I used last spring had some overshoot and undershoot issues due to the thermal mass of the heaters (resistors in concrete), this forced me to set my thermostat at 88F / 31C just to be sure I didn’t overheat the bees. Hence I was not able to precisely control the hive to 95F / 35F like a queen cell incubator can.
Back to the drawing board indeed :-D
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I feel as though i just heard a lecture for a Short Course. Now we need someone to schedule a Lab so we can all get CE credit.
They have two frames of brood now. I might be able to add one frame of bees & brood to the little swarm. I have been able to give them fully drawn frames to lay in. Plus those get filled with syrup before they go into the nuc. Not to mention the several frames with capped honey and pollen that are in storage. Plus they are getting syrup from a HTF until it gets cold. I can also insulate and will look into heating.
Which means a five frame nuc with three brood frames with bees. Plenty of syrup, honey, & pollen. And heat will be addressed since the cluster will be so small.
Thank you.
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If you’ve got 2 or 3 frames with brood and bees, that should be a descent population of bees within 21 days. I would guess your weather will be relatively mild until early November.
I use insulation in my nucs and heat if the colony is under 5 frames. However based on the Michael Palmer video I watched he winters 4 deep frames of bees in plain wood boxes in Vermont (2 colonies per 10 frame box). You might not need a flux capacitor in VA, I don’t know.
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2 or 3 frames with brood and bees, that should be a descent population of bees within 21 days. I would guess your weather will be relatively mild until early November.
Well those 2 -3 frames of brood are Small patches of brood but from what is being said definitely enough to work with. They got a chance anyway. Hard to say how much brooding they have left in them. We might get a frost and have cold nightly lows starting this weekend. It will get warmer before December though.
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I have not had any luck with one hive over the other where the moisture (air) can get through. Double screens and even a very small hole with double screen have only resulted in the top hive being overwhelmed by the moisture from the bottom hive. I don't recommend it. I can't say it couldn't work in some other climate, but it fails miserably in mine.
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What happens to them? Do they just die. I was going to order some double screens as i have had some request it. In VA it may not be a good idea then if say that
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I have not had any luck with one hive over the other where the moisture (air) can get through. Double screens and even a very small hole with double screen have only resulted in the top hive being overwhelmed by the moisture from the bottom hive. I don't recommend it. I can't say it couldn't work in some other climate, but it fails miserably in mine.
yea moisture is no friend to the bees- gota give it a exit-RDY-B