In a message dated 96-10-10 02:28:48 EDT, [log in to unmask] (Steven A. Creasy)
writes:
 
<< Sorry for the regionality (?) of this question, but does anyone in the
 mid-southern US use top ventilation in the winter?  What are the
 benefits/drawbacks?  This finishes my second season on beekeeping, and I
 have never ventilated on the top (eg Imrie Shim).  I anxiously await your
 responses!
 
Steve Creasy in Maryville, Tennessee>>
 
     YES!!
 
     I believe we are warmer than you in winter, but I wouldn't even think of
keeping the hives tight over winter.  Not only does it help them ventilate to
remove moisture (remember heat rises, carrying moisture with it), but it can
well save the bees in severe weather.
 
    If we get any snow at all here, it is apt to be in the late winter or
spring, and it's apt to be very wet snow.  One such spring storm cost me a
number of hives from suffocation.  They were in new, tight equipment, and the
snow/rain/sleet/slop piled up above the entrance and froze hard overnight.
 
    Normally snow is quite permeable by air, but this wasn't, and some of the
nicest hives died.  Weaker hives, as well as those in ragged, holey
equipment, were fine.  It taught me a lesson.
 
[log in to unmask]    Dave Green,  PO Box 1200,  Hemingway,  SC
29554        (Dave & Jan's Pollination Service,  Pot o'Gold Honey Co.)
 
Practical Pollination Home Page            Dave & Janice Green
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