Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: RHBee on February 13, 2013, 05:43:28 pm
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How cold can brood get before they die?
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Not very cool for very long. When the temp is under 50o on a clear still day, limit your time to keep a hive open for only a few minutes.
Once you are above 85 it is not too risky. dd2
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worried about this cold snap?
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worried about this cold snap?
Yeah, That small colony. I shifted a frame of brood from one of my strong hives over to them to give them a boost. I'm not sure if there is enough bees to keep any of it alive. I've read that normal brood needs 93 to 97 degF to do well. I just don't know what the low end of survival temp is. I added an 8 watt terrarium bottom heater under the screened bottom board and then sealed that up with a plank. Who knows it could work. IDK
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Yeah, the brood should nominally be incubated at about 95F from what I recall reading. It will definitely die if there are not bees over it keeping it warm. What the exact limits are, I don’t know. I know brood will die even at room temp without bees keeping it warm. The key is having enough bees to keep the brood covered/warm. If you have the bees, brood can make it through cold spells with no problem. Heck some of my hives have a little brood now and it’s a whole lot colder here than in South Carolina.
You’ve done all you can do. Actually you’ve done more than 90% of beeks would probably do! Good luck.
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ray i did the same thing back in november for a really late cut out colony that was pathetically weak and i never saw any signs of chilled brood and there are still bees in it today. the queen doesn't seem to be getting the job done, though. i think i'm going to end up making a nuc with the bees and putting the top/bottom and hive body to better use. the bees look mite free and even though they are weak the hive beetles don't seem to be giving them much trouble. i'm going to give them til after this cold snap and if i don't see more brood they're going to get down sized and if they don't catch a gear after that it's going to be "off with her head".
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Well I have a bad case of "can't help it" when it comes to these bees. I've done some digging around in an attempt to identify their race. The only one I can come up with is Carniolan. This is not a scientific identification by any stretch of the imagination. It is simply based on coloration and temperament.
I've also been reading up on brood chamber temperature and its effect on the queens willingness to begin laying. It appears that she will shut down production at about 90F. I may take this as a challenge to stimulation her by doing what the small population can't. I'm toying around with a few ideas.
My grandson is 10 and wants his own colony and based on the nature of these bees they would make a good impression on a young mans memory that will last long after I'm gone.
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Ray,
To answer your main question, it depends on what stage of development they are in. Eggs can handle a large drop as long as you don't dry them out. Open brood are the most susceptible to the cold, capped brood lose it the closer they get to hatching. I had pulled 7 supers of honey, with all of the bees removed, and left them on the patio for 2 full days, on the third day we started extracting the honey and had bees crawling all over everything and they were still hatching out. We put all of the frames that he'd brood back in the hives. We mow look at each frame to make sure there is no brood. The patio averages about 65 to 75 degrees and they were not affected. If you went from one hive to another they were probably good to go, especially if they had bees with them.
Jim
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When we are banking queen cells and want to prolong our open time we cut the incubator down to 70F on the last day....buys us 5-6 hours.
Scott
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From what I'm hearing from you all it seems that capped brood is pretty temperature tolerant. The frame I gave them was mostly capped so they may bee just fine. I may still put a 75W incandescent light under them. Like I said a challenge. I'll let you guys know how it goes if you want. Thanks for the help and information. I really appreciate your time.
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Well I have a bad case of "can't help it" when it comes to these bees. I've done some digging around in an attempt to identify their race. The only one I can come up with is Carniolan. This is not a scientific identification by any stretch of the imagination. It is simply based on coloration and temperament.
I've also been reading up on brood chamber temperature and its effect on the queens willingness to begin laying. It appears that she will shut down production at about 90F. I may take this as a challenge to stimulation her by doing what the small population can't. I'm toying around with a few ideas.
My grandson is 10 and wants his own colony and based on the nature of these bees they would make a good impression on a young mans memory that will last long after I'm gone.
ray, i think the one's i'm trying to save are carniolans too. if it'll warm up a little i'm going to mover them into a medium 5 frame and bump them up with another frame of capped brood. they are the only bees i have that don't like to come out to meet me.
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ray, i think the one's i'm trying to save are carniolans too.
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10framer--If they are, read up on them. They sound like they may be worth the effort. Supposedly resistant to mites but have a tendency to swarm at the drop of a hat. They winter with a small population like Russians but are one of the most gentile races. Maybe with these I can breed the mean out of the Russians I plan to convert to this year. I'm not into bee genetics yet.
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well it's here. it hit about 50 today but the wind is gusting a lot. hope you come through with no problems.
let me know how the russians do. i don't mind a few stings i'm just wondering if they run on the comb like the germans we used to have around here did.
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it's here to. temp at 47 wind chill at 38 winds at 15-20 with gust to 47. they say you guys further north to go down to the single diggits tonight with us in the middle down to upper teens. but it looks like the temps will be on the rise by the end of the week.
John
forgot to say the winds have packed my battery banks full today in the shop. I am now burning off the excess power into some heater stripes. got the temp up in the shop to about 75 and rising.
John
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it's here to. temp at 47 wind chill at 38 winds at 15-20 with gust to 47. they say you guys further north to go down to the single diggits tonight with us in the middle down to upper teens. but it looks like the temps will be on the rise by the end of the week.
John
forgot to say the winds have packed my battery banks full today in the shop. I am now burning off the excess power into some heater stripes. got the temp up in the shop to about 75 and rising.
John
i'm a little south of you but that sounds similar to what i had going on. are you running windmills? where do you find the stuff to do it? i was wanting to go solar but i sit on high open ground and it's always windy. i wouldn't mind doubling up.
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We got a low of 30F with gusty winds up to 20mph with a little wet stuff thrown in. You guys in the Northern States can probably get a laugh at all the fuss about nothing. What would really bring a smile to your face would be my improvised hive insulation. I "borrowed " a couple of my wife's blankets, wrapped them around a nuc and held them in place with a strap. I also moved the cars off the drive way set the nuc up near the garage and plugged in the heater. Quite a rig. The Missus wants her parking spot back. Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission. You just gotta bee willing to pay the price. :-D
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i'm a little south of you but that sounds similar to what i had going on. are you running windmills? where do you find the stuff to do it? i was wanting to go solar but i sit on high open ground and it's always windy. i wouldn't mind doubling up.
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10framer. I build power generator windmill motors for a hobby. I have shipped them all over the U.S. I build my gens from bad ECM motors form high end AC units. they are permenet magnit motors and I just isolate the fields and run them into idividual full wave bridge rectifiers then to a charge controller then into the battery bank. I run almost everything in my shop off the battery bank from power inverters. I also have solar panels for when the wind is not blowing. If you are thinking about this I would sugest the mix of the two. Its hard to do just one and have enough capacity to run equipment. I have two mills up and am just finishing up a third that will get 420 watts at 670 rpms.
John
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thanks,
i was just planning on solar but i have an ideal location for wind mills too. i heard that forklift batteries work really well.
sorry about the highjack ray.
dive pm me about this when you get a chance. i'd be very interested in buying a system.
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i thought about thermal tape the type u put on outside waterlines...wonder if it has too much heat ..for say around the hive body...not fully covering of course..just the strip..south carolina here as well...
the bees were out and about friday last the day b4 the snow ...the day after the snow they were back at it