The upshot of David's math (roughly confirmed by Randy last month) is that if you go into winter with (for round numbers) 100 lbs. of honey on a hive, the bees’ metabolism and respiration will produce roughly 675 lbs. of water (the weight of 30.68 liters). This 100 lbs. of honey is roughly 8.1 gallons, and the 67.5 lbs. of water is also 8.1 gallons (at 834 lbs. per gallon). So a gallon of honey consumed by the bees during the winter produces approximately a gallon of water.



I suspect your math is right on target.   For me I originally grew up in northern IA  up there the winter air is super dry  and cold  which meant that moisture in the hive was never an issue.   I moved to central IL,  and our winter humidity is around 65%  so its damp all the time.   AS such top ventilation or shall we say "drafts" has been keep to survival.   Styrofoam hives with no upper entrances do not do well,  and years I put them stacked close to a building with not much winter air flow were quite disastrous. Mold and dead bees were horrible that year.

A small upper entrance and a lower entrance also seem to cause enough slow air flow to remove that moisture with no issue.  Seems better than trying to capture it. To me.


Charles

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