adrian Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I have just discovered that our bees have not made it through the winter in their Beehaus. Not a good experience. And no obvious reason (no signs of disease and varroa count was very low) I asked my local expert (been a bee keeper for around 60 years) for his opinion and he told me that I had a very healthy sized colony and at first glance, was as puzzled as I. But, on inspecting the frames closely, we found signs of bees unable to get to food. Yet, there was plenty of honey available. There were signs of dying from the cold. But it hasn't been that cold. And bees don't generally die from cold, especially a good large colony. It has been very wet here (Somerset) and we did have a cold couple of nights early in January, but not that cold really. But, we noticed that there is a lot of condensation on the plastic roof inside the hive. Our prognosis is that the bees got wet and cold, wet from the high level of mositure in the air condensing inside the hive and then the cold snap basically froze them. This would not happen in a wooden hive as the wood would absorb the moisture. What I would like to know is whether anyone else has had condensation problems with the beehaus. We are going to to try out a standard wooden hive this year while I ponder anti condensation measures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 First.....sorry to hear such bad news. Top insulation will largely prevent condensation on a crown board....it's not a case of wood in a wooden hive absorbing water vapour. Can you let us have some more info? How many seams of bees? Were they isolated amongst empty frames or was there food available where the bees were clustered? Did you treat with oxalic? It might be worth contacting Omlet. I don't have a beehaus but I do run poly hives. They should not be wet inside. I hope you get to the bottom of it. PS I presume you have kept the floors open all winter, i.e. the inspection tray wasn't in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrian Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 Most of the bees were lying on the bottom mesh, clustered around 3 or four frames. There were 5 standard frames and 5 deep frames in the hive, about 6 with honey. Some bees were found deep in their hexagonal store, just the tail showing. My expert tells me this is seen when they can't find food, they just try to burow deeper. yet, there was honey only a few cells away (less than 2 inches away) on the same frame i was advised to place the inspection tray in over winter to help keep the heat in, though it blowing aay in the storms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Most of the bees were lying on the bottom mesh, clustered around 3 or four frames. There were 5 standard frames and 5 deep frames in the hive, about 6 with honey. Some bees were found deep in their hexagonal store, just the tail showing. My expert tells me this is seen when they can't find food, they just try to burow deeper. yet, there was honey only a few cells away (less than 2 inches away) on the same frame i was advised to place the inspection tray in over winter to help keep the heat in, though it blowing aay in the storms. It might be that the burrowing bees were the last few left and were unable to move to adjacent stores. That's what happens to a small cluster. Your condensation was undoubtedly caused by lack of ventilation as the inspection tray was left in. I am so sorry....you must be gutted. I do sympathise. My one wooden hive let me know it was in trouble and I hopefully managed to pull them through though I reckon I lost half the bees. I have a modified under floor entrance and that got blocked up and the undertaker bees failed to get the corpses out. Further normal winter losses just blocked the OMF and they started to suffocate. Wooden hives will get wet without adequate ventilation. Don't beat yourself up about it. I wish you well with your next nuc. Book one now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrian Posted April 14, 2014 Author Share Posted April 14, 2014 It wasn't a small nuc any more, there were a lot of bees. I had nurtured a 5 fram nuc into a sizeable colony. There are condensation marks inside the hive, so there is a problem with the Beehaus and condensation. The inspection tray is not the issue as it sits about 2 inches away from the mesh, so plenty of air. And, besides, the wind kept blowing it out anyway. The problem is that there is no ventilation at the top. We believe our bees got damp as the air humidity was over 90% due to the incessant heavy rain. Then we had a sudden cold snap. We have just got our new nuc in place. There were serious issues with the nuc caused by a lazy or inept apiary (who should have known better). That was bad enough, but then the beehaus caused further problems with aspects of its design. it was tough move and we were lucky to have a friend nearby with 76 years' experience of beekeeping to help us sort it out. So we are planning to replace it with a British standard hive in the next few weeks. We are quite disappointed with the beehaus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 I'm glad you got it sorted in the end and your nuc goes from strength to strength. This year is going to be a gooooooooooood year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
