Rain Damage?

[dzeller]

We had a pretty bad storm last night while my family and I were away from home. When we returned, I saw that the outer cover from one of my hives had been blown off the hive and was laying in the yard. That hive has a screen inner cover. I ran over, picked it up and put it back on, noticing that the bees had retreated from the top of the hive.

No bees were in sight when I replaced the outer cover. It was still drizzling at this time. I knocked on the hive and listened. Sure enough, they returned a loud buzz. I am certain that they received a good shower during the storm. It rained pretty hard with a lot of blowing wind.

I have not had any time to open the hive and check on them. Is there anything special that I should do for them? Will the hive dry out OK? I have screen bottom board and screen inner cover. It's suppose to be in the mid 80's today and then the mid 90's through next week. But more thunderstorms are forecast almost every day.

Any warnings or suggestions?

- Dan

[honeyman46408]

Leavem bee and put a rock on the top of the hive

[AR Beekeeper]

They will be ok, honey bees are tough. Swarms are caught in rain and they cluster tightly and the rain runs off instead of soaking the cluster. You may have some brood kill if the bees pulled away from the edges of the brood and it became chilled. They will make up the loss rapidly. The queen usually moves to the center of the cluster for protection so she should not be harmed.

[skateparkdreams1]

same happened to me, i had the lid cracked for ventilation and it blew off of 2 of my 3 hives. this was in early september and it was a bit cold overnight so i lost them both. As a first year rookie it was really discouraging to lose them this way. when i lost the 3rd hive i felt like a complete falure and had to constantly tell people all my hives died when they asked how the bees are. kinda embarrasing anyway, im much more careful this year i have cinder blocks on them and use straps during winter.