sure is hot in here

[jmgi]

Has anyone here ever done a test to see how hot it can get inside a beehive during some of the hotter days in summer? I know that the bees try to regulate the brood nest temperature to keep it in the lower 90's or so, but just seems to me that when it is 100 degrees outside and you basically have a closed up box (the hive) in the sun, it would get way above that temperature no matter how much fanning they do. If so, the brood must be able to withstand higher temperatures without harm, as I have never seen bees hauling out dead larvae or pupae in large amounts during the heat of summer, like they will when they have chilled brood. John

[gone2seed]

There was a picture in one of the old bee books,I think ABC's,of a hive next to a burning building.The hive was actually scorched.A fireman took pity on the bees and threw a bucket of water on them.They survived.I wonder if the newer editions have that picture and story.

[beemandan]

As temperatures rise bees shift their foraging to water. The returning water foragers will deposit droplets throughout the hive and the circulating air will evaporate it. Sometime, eons ago, bees figured out that evaporating water will reduce the ambient temperature. In essence the bees create an airconditioning system. Have you ever seen an evaporative cooling system for a greenhouse or chicken house? The bees were a couple of gazillion years ahead of mankind on this.

[beemandan]

They survived.

I was working for a beekeeping operation...and we got a call from a landowner where we had some hives. Some kids had set fire to the hives. We went out and most were burned to the ground but I remember one...the bottom board was completely burned and when we opened it much of the comb melted. But ya know...those bees survived. We put them in a new hive and moved them....and they lived happily ever after. True story...except the happily ever after part.

[TheBuzz]

2012 was a year for record highs an already Australia has had to add colors to their heat map because, uh it's never been that hot there.

[Vance G]

WOW! It has never been that hot! Seriously, do you believe that?? I have a bridge for sale.

[TheBuzz]

WOW! It has never been that hot! Seriously, do you believe that?? I have a bridge for sale.

If your referring to my comment then yes the avg has never been this high. It's not typically 40s and 50s during the week in New England during January.

[jmgi]

Lets get back on track here, but has anyone ever checked the temperature as I suggested, or are we going to just believe that no matter how hot it gets outside (brush and forest fires aside) the brood nest never goes over 90 something degrees? John

[JRG13]

Hi John,

Just for you I will stick data loggers into my hives this year, it gets over 100 here in summer, the hives will get afternoon shade though but if anyone wants, I will put one out in full sun all day for a bit and we can see the differences.

[jmgi]

JRG13, that would be great, I will try it also, I may be wrong but I just don't recall reading anything in the old bee books about excessive temperatures in the hive. John

[Bee Bliss]

What would also be interesting to know is how hot a hive gets (next to the other one being monitored for temps) that has no bees in it to cool it down.

[jmgi]

Well, I stand corrected, I just noticed in the ABC/XYZ book there is a table of recorded temps in the hive during a summer day, and it says that even with an outside temp of 108 the brood area stayed at around 94, does'nt mention whether the hive was in the sun or shade though. I still will do a test myself this year, ought to be interesting. John

[Rader Sidetrack]

Here is a link to a study in 1926 of internal hive brood area temperature vs outside temperature.

http://files.uniteddiversity.com/Bee...emperature.pdf

The hourly chart (page 186) show outside temperatures over a 24 hr period varied from 68° F to 108° F, while the temperature in the brood area varied from 92.8° F to 94.1° F. The test hive was in the shade. The experiment was at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

And the excerpt starts on page 181, so you don't have to wade thru hundreds of pages to see the chart.

[grozzie2]

Lets get back on track here, but has anyone ever checked the temperature as I suggested, or are we going to just believe that no matter how hot it gets outside (brush and forest fires aside) the brood nest never goes over 90 something degrees? John

hivetool.org

There are graphs, with live data.

I had one hive under an automated scale setup last spring, but, we had some technical issues with it, and abandoned the project for now. I'll probably get one going again this spring. With a scale under the hive, and a temp probe inside, data logging every 5 minutes.

[libhart]

It's not typically 40s and 50s during the week in New England during January.

Not typically, but it happens more regularly than I think everyone wants to remember. We always seems to remember the difficult extremes, so summer heat and winter cold. We don't usually remember the winter warm and the summer cool.

Hartford, CT, a January high temp at 60+
1932 (actually hit 70)
1929
1937
1947
1950
1951

(more, but I won't type them all)

[Jeanette]

Hartford, CT, a January high temp at 60+
1932 (actually hit 70)

Not sure you spotted the Australian reference. TheBuzz was talking about 40-50 degrees Celsius.

[libhart]

I'm pretty sure the 40-50 was F. I'll let TheBuzz tell us.