What temp do your B's fly ?

[Maryland Beekeeper]

Hi all,
If there is any sun at all I've got a few on the feeder @ 50. That seems to be the line. At 54 the feeders are covered. Curious to hear experiences from different regions.
Cheers,
Drew

[iddee]

Temps rising to 45, bees fly. Temps falling to 45, bees don't fly. Bees are temperamental. :-D

[BlueBee]

I agree with iddee, that 45F is a good cutoff for safe flying vs not flying.

I’ve seen some of my bees flying at 32F/0C when it’s sunny.  That is one of my concerns about getting the winter hives TOO warm.  If it’s 70F to 90F inside a hive in the middle of winter and the bees see sun, SOME of them will fly to check for foraging.  At 32F, you’re going to lose most of those bees.  My bees will make cleansing flights in the winter if it sunny and the mid 40s.  You don’t lose too many bees on the cleansing flights because they just fly out, do their business, and fly back in.  This is an advantage of poly hives in the winter, the bees are warm enough to really become active (cleansing flights) during a warm spell.  Here in Michigan, a warm spell in winter is the 40s.

I’ve seen bees milling about on the landing board when the temperatures were in the teens.  That was in super insulated polystyrene hives.

[mulesii]

The temperature is 45 degrees here and I just went out to my hives.  There were a few bees flying, I saw maybe 10 or so coming out of each hive.

[tefer2]

Carniolans-45 degrees, Italians-55 degrees,

[BlueBee]

Tefer, I've got both Carnis and Italians and haven't seen any difference in my poly hives.  If the hive is warm, they all seem to fly about the same temp in my bee yard.

[Maryland Beekeeper]

Does anyone check to see if they are raising brood all winter ? Should they be ?
Cheers,
Drew

[tefer2]

Blue, all our hives are wooden and that doesn't seem to make any difference for us. It's just that strain of carni's that are out that cold. I also write down their hive number for next years queens.

[AllenF]

I do not open mine up in the winter unless I have good reason to.   I do go around and lift up the hives or tilt them to feel how heavy they are.  If light I will add a little dry sugar.  

[Finski]

Hi all,
If there is any sun at all I've got a few on the feeder @ 50. That seems to be the line. At 54 the feeders are covered. Curious to hear experiences from different regions.
Cheers,
Drew

It depends what bees are doing. It they suck syrup from feeder at the day temp 54, they are not able to cap the food.

Individual bees may fly but when the hive flyes, it is another question.

.Guys over estimate badly when the bees flye. Sun and wind affects much do they fly.

If bees are very thirsty, they try very desperate trips.


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[derekm]

today first bees out at 8.30am at 3c (37F) ,  later at 6C (43F) quite abit of activity.  but then my be bees are insulated to tree standard.

[minz]

50F  I can count on  them flying  (Italians) and the larger the hives the more likely to fly in the rain.

[Maryland Beekeeper]

Mine 2, put little roof on feeder  :)
Cheers,
Drew

[Finski]

50F  I can count on  them flying  (Italians) and the larger the hives the more likely to fly in the rain.

I have had Italians and Carniolans together and they fly same way.

Reason is that flowers give nectar above 20C and it is vain flying under low temps.
In low temps nectar has water too much after night.

Bees can make full pollen balls at the temp of 16C. If it is wind, they cannot.


In early spring when  I feed pollen patty, bees come out top drink at the temp of 2C when sun warm up the water spot.

If there is no sun, they stay in cabin even if temp is 15C.

[derekm]

I agree with iddee, that 45F is a good cutoff for safe flying vs not flying.

I’ve seen some of my bees flying at 32F/0C when it’s sunny.  That is one of my concerns about getting the winter hives TOO warm.  If it’s 70F to 90F inside a hive in the middle of winter and the bees see sun, SOME of them will fly to check for foraging.  At 32F, you’re going to lose most of those bees.  My bees will make cleansing flights in the winter if it sunny and the mid 40s.  You don’t lose too many bees on the cleansing flights because they just fly out, do their business, and fly back in.  This is an advantage of poly hives in the winter, the bees are warm enough to really become active (cleansing flights) during a warm spell.  Here in Michigan, a warm spell in winter is the 40s.

I’ve seen bees milling about on the landing board when the temperatures were in the teens.  That was in super insulated polystyrene hives.

Bluebee, even if you closed up your top vent I doubt it would be as warm as 6" walled tree nest .. I have a very good idea(measurements) that you would lose double the heat of a tree nest. Withthat top oopening you are losing more.

[T Beek]

A lot of these observations 'must' be regional dependant. 

Like BlueBee my bees will fly (cleansing) at freezing and a bit below temps "if" its sunny w/ little to no wind. 

Yellow polka dots in the snow is a good sign that your bees are still alive  :-D

[Finski]

,
flying and flying. what for?

I have seen when bees come out in -20C frost. They are sick and i comes out to die.

No idea to look for records of flying

[Maryland Beekeeper]

I am going to bring some inside and try to build up over winter. Want to keep them just warm enough to come out to screened in porch to feed, not to warm to go nuts  :) I'll let you know how it goes.
Cheers,
Drew

[T Beek]

Cool Drew; 

I've got a friend Beek who's bringing a couple late swarms into his basement.  He has an area all screened off, pretty cool.  He's big into wine making/collecting so the temp I believe stays around 50F all year long.  Not sure about it (in the house!!), but we can only wish him well.

[Finski]

.
in Finland guys keep wintering rooms at professional level hundreds of hives.
Same happens in Canada.

[Michael Bush]

It varies by genetics, by sunshine, by wind or calmness of wind.  I typically don't expect to see them flying unless it's 50 F.  But they often sneak in a cleansing flight at cooler temps and I once time saw them on a dead calm day (a rarity in Nebraska) with the sun shining brightly and they had a steady stream going to and from somewhere (all of them in the same direction) while it was 27 F.  I've never seen it before or since...

[T Beek]

What time of the year was that occurrence Michael?  Spring or Fall? 

My bees are surrounded by forest, lakes, ponds and bits of prairie.  In the Spring they find the Skunk Cabbage in a nearby bog before we can smell it (it can/does flower in the snow) and when its just a bit above freezing (32F) we've seen them hitting on it.

We had 40F, calm w/ bright sunshine today.  While placing hay around the beeyard I noticed that all 8 of my hives were busy at the entrances and flying off somewhere and for what, only they know  :-\. 

Propolis perhaps?  I'd think it would be too cold to collect right now, no? 

Could be water as the nearest pond hasn't quite frozen over yet, but there's been plenty of frost for water available. 

One of the many wonders of keeping these fabulous creatures.

[Finski]

.
In Finland cleansing flight happens when  temp is 42F / 5C , bright sun, no wind. It is normally two feet snow then.

The cleansing flight in February is impossible because angle of sun shine is so small that it does not heat the bee body.

After that bees stay again in their cabins over a month because there is no reason to fly out.


Angle of winter sun is so low that it does not heat even if out temp is +5C in the middle of winter.
Sun starts to melt snow in Mach in vertical surfaces but not in horizontal snow.
Snow melst away about 15.4.

[Finski]

It varies by genetics, by sunshine, by wind or calmness of wind.  I typically don't expect to see them flying unless it's 50 F.  ...

That is my opinion too. I wonder what is wrong if bees fly in under 50F conditions.

[BlueBee]

I’m with T Beek, I see my bees flying at temps well below 50F, especially in the spring.  Maybe our local bees are adapted to our local climates as T says?

[Finski]

I’m with T Beek, I see my bees flying at temps well below 50F, especially in the spring.  Maybe our local bees are adapted to our local climates as T says?

my bees forage water to larva feeding near freezing point but to me it is not flying if they fly 5 metres from the hive.

i do not count that as flying

[T Beek]

Yesterday my bees were traveling (in 40F temp & a sunny day) considerably farther than a few meters, mainly heading in the direction of a nearby bog.  With temps going well below freezing for several weeks there is no forage available. 

Are bees capable of collecting propolis when its this cold?

Question for Finski:  If I understand correctly, You've implied that in Finland syrup is fed to bees in the Fall and lasts until March/April. 

Doesn't it freeze solid?  If not how do you keep it fresh and freeze free(i know you experiment w/ heaters, perhaps that's what you were referring to...??  My bees won't even take cold syrup much less frozen syrup. 

Is this perhaps a 'language barrier' thing  :-D?

[Finski]

Question for Finski:  If I understand correctly, You've implied that in Finland syrup is fed to bees in the Fall and lasts until March/April. 

Doesn't it freeze solid?  If not how do you kee

syrup lasts to May. If it lasts only to cleansing flight, all hives  will die. Cleansing flight is in March or In April. Then hives start to comsume more food because they have brood.

Sugar syrup will never harden or crystallised. Real honey is crystallized in combs.

Cluster temp in winter is 23C and the food has same temp.

In pheripheria stores are cold but not inside the cluster.

Willow starts to bloom 1.5 and up to that date bees are very silent in their hives.
Before that hives cannot do much brood because they have not pollen in the hive.
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[T Beek]

You must be describing syrup that was fed then put into cells by the bees, right?  That would make sense. 

I envisioned a feeder of some sort 'freezing' solid on top of your bees and wondered how you kept it from freezing in Finland, but if its 'feed/syrup' that you provided and the bees have converted and capped I understand. 

Thanks.

[Finski]

You must be describing syrup that was fed then put into cells by the bees, right?  That would make sense. 

one box hive tajes winter food in 2-3 days.

2-box hive needs one week.

it take 2 weeks after that that they cap the food.

if feeding is too late, bees leave it uncapped.
That may cause that syrup get moisture and swells out.
Perhaps they do not get syrup dry enough or wax work needs higher out temperature.

i feed with 8 litre box the syrup.


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