Bars Collapsed in Record Heat

[SantaFeBeek]

As long as you have some shade for the bottom one and ventilation between the two, you should be fine. Good luck!

[SantaFeBeek]

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

Picture of one of my TBHs. I put a white board over the top bars, then set the roof on that. Plenty of airflow, although this roof design is too heavy. I'm working on one that is hinged to the box so that I don't have to lift it on and off every time.

[RiodeLobo]

LOL, I'm not sure, but I think MichaelShantz was not suggesting that I fill the TBH will pine needles and take a torch to it, I'm pretty sure he was talking about the smokers.
Unless it's I who is mistaken. Hmmm....

Thanks, I needed a laugh today.

[JRG13]

Full sun is more for beetles than mites IMO. If you're in a hot climate, no need to really put your hive in full sun. I prefer morning sun and afternoon shade myself since it can be 80 degrees first thing in the morning and over 100 before noon.

[Tom Brueggen]

Yes, I just built a second roof to put on top of the other roof. The second roof has 2x4s nailed into some plywood that I painted white. So I'll have a cushion of air between the two roofs. What do you think of that?

I could also wrap the white roof with foil, but I don't know how much more that would help.

I'd recommend (and am planning on) building a short shading structure over my hives. Granted this won't work in a large outyard, or at least it would be inefficient in that situation, but so would TBH's. Just build something like a canopy and stretch shade cloth over it. The shade cloth should give you a pretty good temperature reduction. Just like standing under a shade tree. On that note, my hives currently sit in almost full shade all day. No comb collapse problems yet!

Now for an engineering blurb, recall that heat transfer occurs in three ways: conduction, convection, and radiation. Radiation is traveling by waves, so how we get heat from the sun. Conduction is through a conductive body, like a steel rod. Even the most insulated materials are conductive. So simply laying a piece of insulation on top of your hive really may not do much good. It may actually make it harder for the bees to cool the hive. Your best bet in the summer heat is to block the radiation. If you had a laser thermometer, it would be interesting to take a temp reading on the face of your hive where the sun hits it, and then you could figure up the heat transfer coefficients to know how much of that is transferring into your hive. Blocking the radiation of the sun cuts your maximum temp down to only what the air temp is (109 deg. F). Beeswax melts at 144-147 F.

I haven't tried it yet, but I am confident (possibly naive) that by hanging a shade cloth a few feet above my hives, I will have no comb collapse issues, at least none that are not provoked by something beyond heat, like shaking the hive. If all else fails I guess you'll just have to rig up some air conditioning for the hives.

[DeeAnna]

"...I am confident (possibly naive) that by hanging a shade cloth a few feet above my hives, I will have no comb collapse issues..."

Thermodynamics is appropriate to consider, but don't forget your strength of materials coursework in the process. The width, depth, thickness, and weight of the comb will also affect the tendency for collapse, all other things being equal.

[Fuzzy]

"Where in the Silicon Valley do you live? I used to live in San Jose. Of course, there are many micro-climates out there, but I never saw it get that hot."

I live just on the edge of Los Gatos in Campbell. It doesn't usually get that hot but a few years ago we had 4 consecutive days of 110+ temps. That followed a winter with 4-6 consecutive days with lows of 17-19F. It's been relatively mild since.

Fuzzy

[Tom Brueggen]

Thermodynamics is appropriate to consider, but don't forget your strength of materials coursework in the process. The width, depth, thickness, and weight of the comb will also affect the tendency for collapse, all other things being equal.

Touche Deeanna,
Yeah I totally dismissed tensile strength and elastic modulus properties. I was trying to do a quick google search just for grins to find those values. We do a little poking around, I'm thinking we're going to solve every TBH problem. Then we'll move on to saving the World.

I really like the idea mentioned above of putting the dowel through the top bars. But the more work that goes into constructing a top bar hive to solve "problems" it seems, the more it starts to look like a Lang. Don't get me wrong, I have 4 TBH's, and no Langs. It seems I often times think up what I feel would be great idea for my TBH, and then I realize that the same concept has already be incorporated into a Lang. Oh well, I digress.

[Mr.Beeman]

Luckily I have a walnut tree that provides shade to my hives during the mid day sun. They seem to be doing alright in the 97 degree heat today. Sad news about the collapse.

[fernmanus]

I had a frame collapse today, partly because of heat and partly because of some burr comb that the bees attached to another frame, so when I went to pull the frame the comb went to the bottom of the hive. The frame contained some capped honey, nectar, and some pollen. I separated the honey & nectar. Then I crushed that comb and strained out around a pint of honey. I whipped it with an electric mixer and put it in the fridge, I figure it will be gone in less than a week once my kids get into it. I had a question about the remainder. Can I freeze the pollen and put it in bottom of the hive in the spring? Same with the left over wax/honey mixture? Seems like it would be a cheap and easy way to feed the bees in the spring.

[Tom Brueggen]

After I crush any comb I always give it back to the bees to clean up. Mine don't really seem interested in the wax or pollen, but they'll retrieve honey off of it. Once they pick through it for a day or two you can take it to melt down or toss it if you have no use (shame). I suppose it doesn't hurt to offer the bee bread back to them, I just don't know if they'll take it or not.

[Beev]

As long as it casts some shade it will help. I lay a piece of foam insulation board over mine. I can really tell the difference.

[Seymore]

Fern, yes, you can freeze pollen and honey and then feed back.

[KatGold]

After I crush any comb .. it doesn't hurt to offer the bee bread back to them...

I'm not entirely sure I know what the bee bread looks like. In the pile that I scooped out of the bottom, I could clearly identify the wax and honey (or course!) but there was also some very dark wax that you could chew on and it tasted like honey, but it was obviously not waxy. Instead of spitting out a chewy wax, you'd spit out some chewy, grainy dark stuff.

Sorry if that's gross, I just don't know how else to explain it.

So, is that the bee bread?

[RAFAEL/PR]

im very fond of the top bar hive , but not the bar , made my top bar to except super and super , super deep like a 11 inch frame ,here a picture of my top bar hive http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=1&theater