A friend, who is a very experienced beekeeper, recently reported that about 16 of his 32 hives had died, and although he thought that 2 of the hives had starved he attributed the death of the other 14 hives to cold weather, and said simply that they froze to death.
We had one night when the temperature went to -23 degrees (a sudden and drastic change), but there were only a handful of other days when the temperature went below zero.
I think all of his hives were on screened bottom boards with some of them closed, and some of them completely open, but there doesn't seem to be any relationship between the open or closed bottoms, and which hives lived or died.
Now, from what I read here I'm under the impression that bees do not freeze to death simply because of very cold weather. Do you think that his bees froze to death because of some cold weather or did his bees freeze to death because it got a little chilly, and his bees had other serious problems at the same time?
Thanks...
We had one night when the temperature went to -23 degrees (a sudden and drastic change), but there were only a handful of other days when the temperature went below zero.
I think all of his hives were on screened bottom boards with some of them closed, and some of them completely open, but there doesn't seem to be any relationship between the open or closed bottoms, and which hives lived or died.
Now, from what I read here I'm under the impression that bees do not freeze to death simply because of very cold weather. Do you think that his bees froze to death because of some cold weather or did his bees freeze to death because it got a little chilly, and his bees had other serious problems at the same time?
Thanks...