>When their screened bottoms are blocked, they all beard heavily in the heat
of Oklahoma usually in late May, but as soon as I remove those wooden
blockers I had placed for a quick spring build up, they do not beard
although the bottom is exposed to the hot air.

 

I also live in Climate Zone 7. I run a mix of hive types: standard
Langstroths, thick (1.75") wall Warres, poly nucs and a few Apimaye hives.

 

I have observed a few things relative to bearding in this environment:

 

1.	Langstroths with slatted racks beard less than those without.
2.	The Warres with thick construction but of a dark color typically
beard extensively, particularly those in full sun.
3.	Bearding is almost nonexistent with polys and Apimayes.

 

When I combine my own observations with Derek's research I am left to
conclude that each colony is in-fact attempting to maintain a fairly tight
environmental window inside the hive, and will use varying methods to
attempt to reach these parameters depending on the constitution of the
cavity and the ambient conditions (i.e. temperature, humidity, solar gain,
etc.).

 

So I suspect that bearding in the case of Langstroth colonies with solid
bottom boards represents the least costly approach to maintaining the
interior environment - and that this calculus changes when the colony is in
a more resistive cavity and/or is out of direct sun.

 

 

 


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