How hot is too hot?

[mhorowit]

New comb, heavy with bees and brood. Very delicate. At what temp. should I forget about working the hive? - Mike

[Bradley_Bee]

150 degrees Fahrenheit

[Bradley_Bee]

what I mean to say is, Here in the desert our major honey flow comes in the dead of the summer with average temperatures at 110-115. And , although we try and get done before noon on most days it is still very very hot. If you need to work them, work them.

[Rader Sidetrack]

New comb, heavy with bees and brood. Very delicate. At what temp. should I forget about working the hive? - Mike

You may find this useful:

http://www.bushfarms.com/beestopbarhives.htm

Question: How can you have too much ventilation? Isn't ventilation a good thing?

Answer: Of course in the winter, too much ventilation means too much heat loss. But even in the summer the bees are cooling the hive by evaporation, so on a hot day the inside of the hive may be cooler than the outside air. So too much ventilation could result in the bees being unable to maintain a cooler temperature inside. When wax heats up past the normal operating temperatures of a hive (> 93 F) it gets very weak and combs can collapse.

Above 93 degrees, this beekeeper is not motivated to suit up, and looks for something else to do.

[mhorowit]

You may find this useful:

http://www.bushfarms.com/beestopbarhives.htm



Above 93 degrees, this beekeeper is not motivated to suit up, and looks for something else to do.

thanks - I'll go with that; interesting about the ventilation; brings into question the need for a screened bottom board for ventilation. - Mike

[Steven Ogborn]

Hey Mike
I'd suggest doing a search for old threads about screened bottoms. There's a lot of cons with them in TBHs.