Charles:>Although I would disagree with Professor on the water unless its hot.


Actually, we are in agreement.  Remember, I said I used water moving bees across from MT to MD in 90-100 degree weather.


Western Bee has been hauling bees back to Polson from N. CA for years:


The tip about the pallet under the first layer in a pickup is a good one - Rick learned the hard way that the catalytic converter area was a hot spot in the bed.


But a couple of years ago, Rick hit a surprisingly hot bit of weather for spring, and he had far more bee drop than he normally experiences in the packages.  He even tried to cool off the load by taking a higher elevation route and even stopped to wet down the load  a bit.


So, yes, the water system is overkill for most areas this time of year.  However, Rick would have been very happy to have the option when he was having overheating problems.



FYI, if I'm hauling fragile loads, my paranoia kicks in.    It's another reason I don't like pickup drawn trailers - but as a researcher I have to use them - I've a 14 ft flatbed, dual axle.  I added a nose guard to it after one year when I carried bees to MD and got into one of their gully washing down pours.  The spray from the rear tires drenched the front - didn't drown any bees, but came close.


The only bees I've ever lost in transport were from over-heating.


I also learned different climatic zone require different strategies.  In MD I croaked a couple of hives in a couple hour delivery.  It was HOT and HUMID.  I screened the entrances, but had to make a series of drops of 1-2 colonies at different locations.  I found the last set heat prostrated in a wet lump.  From then on, I put a screen top on the hives when moving in the heat of MD.   In Yuma, it was so hot and dry, we had to even set up delivered hives in some form of shade for those times that the military sent out black flag condition alerts.  It was the only time I ever saw water gathering bees stop gathering water.


Like Charles, we've carried bees in packages over mountains while it was snowing.  Just give them a bit of help to keep the 70 mph wind from overly chilling them.


That's the key.  Moisture is an evaporation cooler, but ONLY if there's good air flow.   One year, we went past Chicago when it was so hot the roads were actually showing heat buckles.  Blazing sun, 98-100+ temp, high humidity.  SO hot that the load on the side facing the sun tended to start to crawl upward in the colonies.  When it started to climb and didn't level out, we'd give a SHORT burst of water.  The heat inside the hives came back down rapidly.   I'm not talking about washing them, just a short burst to mist them, as needed.  I wouldn't recommend my method without sensors in the load reporting to the cab.


We were moving in mid-summer for military trials on their specified sites - any place, any time.  The generals wanted to know that sentinel hives could survive the conditions of the middle east.  I take some pride in that we learned how to regulate conditions inside beehives in heat and dry, heat and humid, and everything in btw.





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