Lloyd Spear said:

>">>Last winter I lost almost all of my hives by letting air flow through
>the hives by leaving an opening at the top of the hives as some suggest
>here on Bee-L. This winter I had no losses and the weather was similar to
>the year before."

>By no means do I want to be critical of this person's abilities, but this
>statement reminds me of many 'methods' considered necessary to
>beekeeping. All to often, a beekeeper has tried something, found it
>'works', and then proclaimed it as a tried and true method.  All too
>often part of the 'proof' is that the beekeeper has used the method for
>30 years and never had any difficulty with (name your problem).


>Yes, your hives lived through the winter without an upper entrance, and
>died with an upper entrance.  But the 'cause and effect' implied is most
>assuredly not there.  Something else changed...

>A failure to provide an upper entrance for ventilation is a recipe for
>disaster...sooner or later.  (There must be a reason why feral colonies
>almost always have their brood nest and honey storage area BELOW the
>entrance.)

    Thank you for not being too critical. I'm just learning.  I told how I
followed the advice of Glen Stanley in the Nov., 2003 ABJ and somehow my
bees survived. True, this year I feed in the fall a lot more than I did
the year before, but none of my hives the year before were devoid of
stores at the end of winter.

    I do feel that something was going on in my hives this year that
wasn't the year before. The reason for the upper ventilation I understand,
ie. to remove moist air so that you don't have the condensation problem
under the inner cover. We had a a cold period this winter where the
temperatures went between 0 F and 10 F.  Why didn't I have a problem?  My
bees appear almost as strong now as they were going into winter. Most
things except for the amount of stores was about the same--age of queens,
disease etc.

    I can't help but attribute the success of what I did this last winter
to the styrofoam insulation between the inner and outer cover and creating
a dead air space under the hive. I theorize that the bees were warmer and
were able to move around better. Was the heat coming off the cluster
sufficient to keep the bottom of the inner cover temperature above the
condensation point of the moisture of the air coming off the cluster?  At
these low ambient temperatures, how much moisture are the bees producing?
Are the bees consuming a very small amount of honey at these low
temperatures and thus really aren't producing a lot of moisture?

    I didn't include how I overwintered my bees this year as a statement
of some new discovery. I thought it was an important factor in finding an
answer to my question of below what ambient temperature will the bees be
unable to access nearby stores. (I'll add to that -- on cloudy days to
eliminate the effect of the sun on the hives).

    Maybe someone can explain why all nine of my hives survived this year
in spite of my violating the rule of having upper ventilation. Remember
that in the article that appeared in the Nov., 2003 ABJ Glen Stanley
mentioned that he had 98 - 99 % success with having the ventilation
opening under the upper brood chamber while maintaining 100 colonies for
the past 30 years in Des Moines, IA. He supports his method with the
research of Dr. Eric Erickson at the USDA lab in Madison, Wisconsin. Are
their experiences just a lot of BS? Has someone taken them to task and
proven them wrong? I haven't seen any letters to the editor in the ABJ
since the Glen Stanley article appeared that contradicts what Glen Stanley
wrote.

    I'm not trying to be argumentative. I am just learning how to keep
bees. I ask the above questions because of the "an inquiring mind wants to
know".

Jim







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