Leave them alone for 10 days question, confirmation

[wcubed]

Daniel Y,
I see no reason to argue with your interpretation of weather conditions or the effects on the colonies. As we remember, Reno is higher in elevation than the surrounding region and on the fringe of the blast of artic air coming out of western Canada. The polar air descends into this country, traveling in the quadrant east to south, depending on the steering effects of the west to east jet stream. It's easy to see that your specific weather is erratic with all the variables involved.

Walt

[Daniel Y]

Walt, you are correct on the influences on the weather here, minus a few. as if they where not already enough. We are also in what is called the "Shadow" of the Sierra mountain range. What this means is that as the air moves in from the pacific it must rise over this range. this results in the moisture condensing on the western side of the mountains and that is where the rain falls we are about 10 miles from them on the eastern side. By the time this air reaches us it is bone dry and we end up getting very little rain. this is actually one of the primary causes of the conditions in Death Valley. We are actually only a couple of hours north of that valley.
It got to over 100 here yesterday and this morning it is 59 degrees and still falling. This is because as that air moves in from the pacific it pushes the air in the mountains at an 8000 foot elevation down on top of us. as the day progresses the air moving over the mountains warms and still pours down on top of the earlier cooler air. This actually creates an inversion where warmer air is actually setting on top of cooler air and trapping it in the valley where we are. This trapping of air can last for days and actually causes quite serious air quality issues here in the city. The overall effect is this city has something very much like a giant air conditioner that comes on every night. This is great if you like the temp in the 60's . Me I am more of an 80's type so it does not make me happy. The mild winters make up for it to some degree though. I was born in the mid west and now very well what a 10 below morning feels like. No thanks we head indoors at 30 degrees here.

[Daniel Y]

If I left the smoker next to the hive and the wind is blowing the smoke over the hive, will this make the bees more upset? Is it true that I could make them more uptight with too much smoke?

I have actually seen other beekeepers mention doing this as a means of not smoking them to much. basically there is smoking them and then over smoking them. I think it pretty much requires finding the line for yourself. I think I have gone over the top a couple of times due to a smoker that does not want to smoke and then suddenly kicking in. Big thick cloud of smoke I know the bees do not like. But just exactly where to much smoke is I have not got dialed in just yet. I do think your setting the smoker so the wind drifts smoke past the hive is a good idea. My bet is no method is perfect.

[delber]

I haven't read this whole thread, but I have 2 things that may have already been said and if so I'm sorry for the repeat.
1st. I had a very small hive that probably only covered 2 deep frames and a mated queen last summer. They got robbed out and all of the brood was ripped out and on the bottom board. I took care of the robbing, but what I found was interesting that I thought I'd share. A queen is able to lay a ton of eggs no matter what, however it was interesting looking 2 days or so after I had the robbing stopped that the queen only laid eggs in cells that were covered with bees. The queen wouldn't lay outside of this (for obvious reasons, namely no bees to keep it warm) so when things are building up they will only build up so fast. Even though the queen can lay more the rest of the bees may not be able to hold up to it. Spreading things out too fast too soon isn't good but will actually put you back. (as someone else said on pg. 1 I think)

The second thing is if you see a larva crawling anywhere in the hives my mind goes to SHB or Wax moth. I have found both of these in my hives from time to time. About a month ago I tried to do the same as you in spreading things out in a hive of mine and did it too fast. One frame was deserted and SHB took that to their liking. I had larva on that frame and on the bottom board under it. The frame is still in the freezer (it can be taken out any time) and I cleaned up the bottom board and rearranged the frames in this hive to make it better for them. When my hive was robbed out there were both wax moth larva and bee larva on the bottom board, however only the wax moths were moving. Has anyone else seen different? Does bee larva crawl out? I know SHB larva well, they have 3 set of legs at the head end.

I hope this helps. It does seem that if there was a SHB problem that it is probably taken care of at this point, but I say this just as a FYI.