From: "deelusbybeekeeper" <deelusbybeekeeper@excelonline.com>
Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2001 17:15:08 -0800
To: <BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: Artificially heated wintered hive

Ma wrote:
> Now - it was mentioned a few times, here on BioBees and elsewhere ..
> "artificially heated". Could this be described a bit more, what is meant by
> that?

Reply:
As far as I know Ma artificial heating of colonies can be done three basic
ways.

The USDA did an overwintering 5 year experiment on the thermology of
wintering honeybee colonies back in 1971 with some colonies held at 40F by
the usage of a tape heater wrapped around the colonies. Now the actual work
for the heating and how to set up is in US Dept of Agric Tech bulletin #
1377, 24 pages by C.D. Owens, and C. L. Farrar in 1967.

Also I have seen written and diagramed Air conditioning units and heating
units for bee colonies. This work was done back in the 1940s and published
in 1946 in 'Scientific Beekeeping' by Sechrist and McFarland. Nowadays the
twist with the units pictured back then is powering by solar panels to do
the same thing to avoid running electrical wiring out to the colonies.

Now as a child growing up in New York state I observed light bulbs
(25wattt) strung in succession with waterproof electrical sockets and bulbs
placed under colonies and turned on at dusk and off at sunrise to help keep
colonies warm during cold winter months. There were normally about 8-12 on a
string of lights with 6-8 feet of wire between bulbs to allow for spacing of
colonies which were placed flush on top of shallow boxes with the bulbs
centered inside the shallow boxes with the bulb layinging on a 2-6 block
(not ground) so the heat could radiate up from the bottom through the
reduced entrance bottom board.

> Inside the box was one light fixture with
> a 40 or 60 watt light bulb. The hives were on the box all winter. The light
> bulb burned continually once temperatures hit approx. - 10 C / 6 F. Really,
> not much "heat" was generated, but it seemed to have been enough so that
> the hives more or less stayed dry. This seemed to help.

Reply:
This seems similar to what my uncle was doing on his farm in upstate New
York Ma with his light bulbs. I see nothing wrong with this.

Also while I think of this I might as well tell you when I first wanted to
raise plenty of queens all winter down here in Arizona from the middle of
Dec to the 1st of Feb I used a string of lights (still keep in storage)
with 25watt bulbs under my starter finsishers to get more cells built then
normal. It also stimulates brood rearing for grafting when put under
selected coloines.

Then I start flinging virgins in late Dec through the end of Jan. But Feb I
can normally raise them again without the lights by the middle of the month.
But it is a good way to get a stockline off to a good start between the sun
cycles of late fall and early spring the first year or so until bees
normally go early and late on their own.Especially if one wants small black
queens!

Regards,

Dee