Well finally..........
its starting to feel a lot like Summer,
everywhere I go.....
take a look at the hive and then.....
bees are everywhere again🤷♂️
with honey flows and stings that make you glow....
hahaha, well hopefully you have the Christmas song in your head now with that little intro....
so the heat is on!! Yeah! the heat is onnnnn.... oh stop it....
Some top tips with the extremes of weather coming our way in order to help our little friends out....
- provide shade in the heat of the day through to late in the afternoon...
- ensure all vents are open inside your hives / flow hive 2's and 2+ back vents into summer mode...
- remove oil trays for the day...
- if you have a top board cover in place open it / put mesh screening over the the hole
- if normal lids or again top boards - place a matchstick in each corner under the lid or board creating a gap (Don't forget to weigh the lid or tie it down)
- buckets or containers of water near the hives with car sponges / rock etc in them.
- water your gardens / lawns...
- large pieces of foam or large pieces cardboard over the roof to create shade.
- if you use something like metal on top place a large gap between the metal and roof about 100mm or more to allow the metal to absorb the heat and reflect it and not heat the hive. - open up the front of the hive (remove timber reducers) replace at night due to sun for small colonies due to shb.
- if you have a pool place camping mats on the pool or pool noodles to allow the stray bees, birds and other insects to dry off.
and finally if they are bearding like in these following pics - leave them alone and let them do their thing -
Happy Beekeeping all...
Hey Rick, This was the hive on the weekend and now we have these bees in the tree near the hive. I opened the hive lid and there is still heaps of bees still in the hive and coming and going from the entry. Didn’t have time to check bottom box to see if the queen is still there, will
do that this arvo.
Are they culling numbers or could it be someone else’s bees?