Hey Etienne,
Yes, I do....up until the night time temps are below 40 (right about now).
Then I put the bottom boards in for the remainder of the winter (pulled
usually at the end of Feb). I'm in western WA so moisture is a big
problem, and it's a balancing act. If I put the bottom boards in too early
even with an upper entrance I get huge amounts of condensation and chilling
and they aren't able to cap honey or dry out syrup, so I get fermentation.
With the bottom boards in now I have to put pine shavings up in a quilt box
which I dump in Jan and replace with sugar to mountain camp them for the
Feb freeze we get here for about 10 days mid Feb.
My daytime temps are consistently around 50 (I'm on the water), so the
cluster is always a bit expanded but contracts down for the two weeks of
freezing temps we get in Feb (means they go through more food, higher
metabolic rate). If I don't drive them up into the upper box by then and
give them access to sugar up there they starve to death on the combs due to
the honey being just a little out of reach when they contract into a tight
cluster in Feb. Also, any deadouts have to be retrieved within a day or
two or everything is covered with mold.
All that said, occasionally I get caught without the bottom boards
installed early enough and have had an overnight cold snap take out some of
the more fragile units. And just to add a bit more challenge to the mix, I
never ever have a broodless period - I can open hives on Thanksgiving,
Christmas and New Year's Day and have a small broodnest in them. How they
know when to move that reproductive center from the bottom box to the top
box I'll never figure out!! Amazing creatures!! I'm running about 200
units overwinter and about 300 at peak season.
Hope that's what you were looking for.....
OBTW love your cluster data!!
Cheers,
J
*Dr. Jennifer Short, DVM, MBA*
*Chief Bee Wrangler*
*Camano Island Honey*
*Sanctuary Farms Apiary, LLC*
*www.CamanoIslandHoney.com <http://www.camanoislandhoney.com/>*
*www.facebook.com/CamanoIslandHoney <http://www.camanoislandhoney.com/>/*
*[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>*
*(360) 926-8208 (O)*
*(303) 330-1724 (C)*
On Tue, Dec 8, 2020 at 1:22 PM Etienne Tardif <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Here is a slide from my presentation moisture (just made it today) to show
> folks what condensation looks like and what the triggers are.
>
> That's why understanding what your diurnal is, typical RH% over winter and
> making sure you have plenty of extra honey stores upper and lower boxes is
> important. Regardless of location my recommendation is to have extra top
> insulation just to protect the top of the cluster.
>
> What is too much ventilation? How is that defined for you? Does anyone use
> screened boards (open) with a top entrances in winter in non-insulated
> hives (not recommended in my humble opinion)?
>
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