I spoke to a group of community leaders at a civic club luncheon. They were interested in the fact that the honey bee is the only insect in the temperate zone that remains alive and active throughout the year. I explained to them that with the weather quite cold now, the bees are huddled together in a cluster, using their own bodies to generate and hold heat. They accomplish this by eating the honey that they produced throughout the previous year. The high-energy food allows them to survive the lengthy period until flowering plants once again come into bloom. The honey that they produce is a unique item, the only food that can last virtually forever without refrigeration or treatment. We talked about the decline in honey bee and native pollinator populations that have occurred in recent years. I explained that the audience could help restore bees by creating a pollinator garden in their own home yards. I suggested that they could help by limiting the use of chemical herbicides and pesticides used on the lawn, golf courses, and farms. I asked them to use their influence to ask that their golf courses adopt turf maintenance practices that don’t harm the pollinators. Golf courses typically employ 14 times the amount of chemicals as agricultural crop fields. Today’s picture shows two Peace Bee Farm hives set-up for the winter with the hives tilted forward and top feeders in place.
--Richard
Hi Richard,
ReplyDeleteThis is probably my favorite blog.
What is the purpose of tilting the hives forward?
Also, how much wind can the above hives sustain without blowing over.
Thanks.
Russ
Russ,
ReplyDeleteThank you. I am glad that you find the postings of interest. One of the things that I like about beekeeping is that so much of the craft can be accomplished by simple, low-technology means. For example, we can take care of several honey bee health issues by the way we set up our hive stands. In the low, flat, wide-open Mississippi River Delta of Arkansas, it is necessary to raise the hives above the ground. For this, I use eight-inch concrete blocks and four-inch treated timbers. After heavy rains earlier in the week, I was working my bees wearing rubber boots while standing in a couple of inches of water. Being elevated above the damp ground helps prevent hive flooding and reduces fungal diseases like chalkbrood and Nosema.
Today, my bee hives are covered with sleet and snow. Since the colonies have begun brood production, the internal temperature of the hives is 95 degrees. The honey bees, like us, give off a considerable amount of water vapor through respiration. The wintertime result in the hive is similar to the summertime effect as seen on the outside of a glass of iced tea. Considerable amounts of water vapor condense on the inside of the hive. Tilting the hive forward allows the droplets of water to run along the cover and down the sides of the hive without dripping onto the cluster of bees. If you click on the picture, you can see that I used a one-inch diameter surveyor’s stake to give the hives a little tilt.
Bee hives in the Delta are exposed to strong winds. I keep two bricks on top of each hive, and I use wooden wedges to make sure that the hives don’t rock around on the stands. The strongest straight-line winds that my hives have endured were 102 miles per hour. None toppled. Occasionally, I lose covers during storms.
--Richard
Thanks for the informative and kind response.
ReplyDeleteRuss