A big, bold, bee-beard. Nothing to be worried about!
“My bees are hanging out all over the front of the hive! (called ‘bearding’)!”
“It’s so hot my combs are falling!”
“There’s condensation dripping down the glass on the viewing window!”
Any quick search will turn up many articles online about ventilating your bee hives, including the use of screened bottoms, off-set hive lids, wide-open summer entrances, multiple ventilation holes, side and lid insulation, and more. But are our ventilation manipulations really helpful to our bees?
Bees Feel Heat Their Own Way
I think it’s a natural tendency to relate to and empathize with our bees. I feel these qualities are what makes us able to feel compassion for other creatures—which is a good thing!— and I’d bet that everyone reading this cares deeply about their bees.
Sometimes our bee empathy can lead us astray, however, and I believe that hive ventilation is a topic where we can easily fall off the good bee road. I’ll admit that I’m a card-carrying anthropomorphizer and proud of it. But even I must concur that creatures with six legs and exoskeletons have a very different life experience from mine.
For instance, my ideas about what constitutes acceptable temperature, humidity, and ventilation ought not to be transposed onto my bees. While it feels utterly unnatural to me, bees like a hive that is moist and hot—like New York City in middle of summer.
Humidity
Bee brood needs to be kept humid and very warm (89.6 to 92.6 Farenheit). Even mild fluctuations of a mere half-degree inside the colony can weaken and retard developing bees. When we open our hives, for instance, house bees rush in to warm the brood with their bodies and continue activities to restore the heat and humidity among the brood combs until the required temperature is restored. It can take them days to restore the hive atmosphere.
Varroa Mites
Varroa mites do not like these high and hot temperatures, nor the wet of condensation and perhaps our bees understand this. In fact, there is new technology that involves heating hives up to the temperature that will kill these mites without damaging the bees or their combs.
Bees construct their comb in a way that optimizes their ability to regulate temperature and humidity. They will cross-comb (build wavy comb across one or more frames or bars) to create a much more stable comb in hot weather, and to move air in their preferred pattern throughout the hive. At the hive entrance at different times of the day—or season—you can actually “feel” the hive breathe as she takes in air and then expels it, sometimes quickly, sometimes over the course of a day. Combs and their arrangement are the lungs of the hive.
Condensation
In this Warre hive, a quilt box on top of the uppermost box absorbs moisture and keeps it from falling on the heads of the bees in winter. The hive is managed by the box, not often by the comb.
Often when beekeepers see condensation dripping down the insides of the hive, we get panicky. I mean, who wants water running down your walls? But bees like—and use—this condensation. It is an integral part of their inner hive HVAC system. When there is condensation in the hive, the bees have a water source at their lips (if they had lips), and the colony needn’t waste precious forager energy on water collection.
We may also become needlessly concerned when we see our bees bearding by the thousands on the outside of the hive during the summer. “Oh my! My poor bees are so hot they can’t even bear to be inside the hive!” Actually, it is perfectly bearable in there, but the house bees have indicated that too many bee bodies will disturb the temps needed for brood, and for nectar evaporation, so many of the hive bees are sent by the Hive Mind to camp under the stars at night.
Left To Their Own Devices
Left to their own devices, bees are more than capable of creating and maintaining their complex hive atmosphere. And the operative word of that last sentence is “complex.” Our bees have so many different tasks throughout the seasons, all requiring different temperatures and different patterns of air flow. It would be impossible for us to imagine the mind of the superorganism—the colony—that regulates all these complex adaptations.
Inside the Hive
Remember that whatever the colony does inside the hive, she does it slowly and by small degrees. When we intervene to help our bees by increasing/decreasing airflow, adding new ventilation holes, or even poking around inside our hives, our actions create a swift and abrupt change within the colony, a change it may take the bees a better part of a week to ameliorate.
I’m all for helping my bees, but I am not wanting to add more work to their already busy lives. From the reading I’ve done, and by watching my own hives extensively, I’m offering some ideas to consider when the warm weather arrives and starts making your fingers itch to help your bees. Wait a moment before you crack that lid!
This thickly woven skep has the insulation value of 6-inches of wood.
- Bees like small hive entrances, all the time. Beekeepers often find that when we add additional openings to let in some air, the bees hurry to close them. Small entrances are easier to defend in any season, and minimize outside weather intrusion.
- Bees prefer to construct their comb in ways to maximize hive atmosphere. This is difficult for beekeepers who need to be able to quickly inspect their comb, but it is a serious trade-off for bees. Straight comb requires much more work for the HVAC bees. And is much more inclined to collapse in hot weather.
- Ideally, the less influence the outdoors has on the inside of the colony, the less stress the bees must endure to maintain the parameters important to their health. To me, this means we ought to be pondering how to craft hive bodies that have similar insulation values to thick trees. I’m making woven hives (skeps), but also thinking about insulating panels for the top and sides of my top bar hives, and not only to use in winter, but in summer as well, giving the bees a colony space that mimics their natural behavior in a wild tree.
- Open your hive only when you truly need to. Think of the temperature inside as a precious commodity you don’t want to waste.
15 Comments
I could not agree more! Thank you for this article. I have been struggling to explain this concept to my worrywart students. In the summer on hot days I get a flood of students asking me if they should vent their hives, switch their bottom boards etc. It’s very hard to convince them to leave the bees alone. Now, I can just forward them this! I never thought to explain it in terms of anthropomorphism, you are so right.
You caught my attention with this article on ventilation. For the good or bad, I am one of those that has that empathy you talked about above and have been experimenting and searching for answers on ventilation. Have kept bees for sometime now and have been concerned when I see the condensation on the top cover. But when it comes to winter I don’t think they need any additional moisture in their hive, then I would think it could cause problems. There is that point where warm air meets the cold. And so if the dew point is inside the hive then all that moisture is trapped with no place to go. Bees inside a big hollow tree may be better insulated so the dew point keeps to a minimum inside? I have been thinking about using the spray or panel styrofoam. On the top I have used one empty super screened and insulated with straw with vent holes. The first year I noticed that the dew point seemed to be contained in the middle of the straw. You would probably laugh if you saw what I am trying next. I’ve added extension PVC tubes coming out and down so the cold air does not rush right in. I would like to find a flapper that would fit on the vent opening to regulate opening only when the pressure builds up to let the moist air out, so it is not continuously open all the time.
I hear you, Chris! This winter, I put entrance covers over the hive entrance holes that point down. We get a lot of wind in the winter, and I don’t like it just blasting into the hive. I do think that all of the hives we use are far too thin and poorly insulated.
I am pretty sure that I just killed 2 hives by adding entrance reducers for them in november. They were doing great and it was theoretically going to be winter so I put them on and when I checked a couple of days later, they were in a complete panic and hating them. I took them off and found many dead behind the reducers. i don’t think i found them soon enough though and too much damage had been done because they are clearly dead now. Granted, we have had a very warm winter but I think they had it all figured out and set up and my interference screwed them up. I have Russian double deep hives with much thicker walls than a langstroth and I was hesitant to add them but did and sure regret it.
Kami, I’ve drilled upper entrances into all my hives. On a lower, reduced entrance in winter, bees can die and clog it up. Then the hive does indeed go crazy!
I designed a double-walled TBH because our New England winters can vacillate like a yo-yo. You can slip in solid core insulation very easily. I’d post a pic here but couldn’t get it to upload in the comment box.
Hi Julia: I have two top bar hives that I won’t use until I can get insulation panels on them. The more I read about hives, the more I feel we are all missing the insulation boat here. According to research that’s been done, log hives are the most well insulated, followed by polystyrene hives and straw skeps (which are both the same for insulation). At the bottom are all of our wooden hives, which offer no insulation. AND–insulation is actually more important in the summer, which is so counter-intuitive!
I am new to bee keeping. I am very interested in learning and actively keeping bees. I am very aware of the importance of bees. Not just for what they produce, but for our survival. I am looking forward to reading and learning as much as I can.
You’ve hit the nail on the head about insulation. Why does no one talk about the natural hive built in thick-walled trees?
What R value do you think we should aim for?
You know, I don’t know enough about R values to say. I do know that I’m so disgusted with the lack of insulation in our flimsy wooden hives that I’ve gotten rid of all but one and put my bees in skeps this year–five of them! From my reading, skeps are the next best thing to log hives for bees. I can’t lift logs, so I’ll have to settle for second best for my bees!
I have built hive making a frame which exists as a type of skeleton with pieces of 2×1 timber with the mid sections consisting of 150 mm double sided aluminium coated styrofoam as used for some home insulation. It makes for a super light hive box and its insulation properties are almost as good as a brought one and much more solid. The frame can be easily refilled if the old insulation is damaged. Using a fly wire screen bottom board in summer prevents wax moth it seems and prevents a high humidity. The bees are thriving. Its an experiment which appears to bee working…
PS jokingly my bees are not threatened, they work voluntarily.. Just in case all other threatened bees are visited by those greenies who claim we are somehow are doing them harm….
Jon, I love innovation! Your hives sound GREAT. In our area many beekeepers are inventing hives that are better for bees, and having success with it!
Thank you for the wonderful perspective and advice!
I figured I’d see Ed Clark’s ancient book “Constructive Beekeeping” mentioned but alas, I must mention it. He was the first and only person I ever read clearly articulate the reasons bees need zero extra ventilation and super insulated hives. Moisture and condensation problems cease to exist when the bees headspace is warm, when their hive walls are thick, and when the entire cavity is propolized. In fact they keep the headspace so warm that no moisture condenses there but rather since the walls are cool and they have been propolized the moisture condenses perfectly on them and this water the bees need during winter. Ed Clark also articulates how ripening honey is far more efficient in super insulated hives with cool, propolized walls than in hives with “extra ventilation”. Ed Clark’s work deserves so much more attention, but I’m glad you’ve taken steps to teach people about the importance of some of these concepts.
Hi,
I live in Atlantic Canada. The winter 19-20 I insulated the walls of the hives with roof tar paper and 1″ white styrofoam. The top had only the styrofoam. I kept the inner cover on. I reduced the entrance to 1″. No upper hole/gap for ventilation. Each hive had a deep brood supper and a deep honey supper. The honey suppers had at the best 6 or 7 capped honey frames. In the spring I found lot of condensation, even mold in the hive. However the colonies were very strong and had eaten only several honey frames from the upper supper. And not many were dead in front of the hive through the winter. No need to say that spring cleaning come the bees cleaned all the mold. The 2020 summer I collected an average of 100 ponds of honey per hive. And the bees entered this winter with the upper honey supper packed at 100%. And I assume some honey in the brood supper as well. I built them cozies: outer walls insulated with 2″ of polyester fiber batting and a larger roof insulated with all the polyester fiber I could find in some old pillows, at least 5″ thick and fluffy. The bottom board is approximately insulated with a 1″ styrofoam board. Probably there are some gaps. The inner cover stayed in place covered by a 1/4″ clean plywood. No vents, actually I screwed this plywood to the inner cover. When it is cold outside, I remove the roof, squeeze my hand between the pillow filling and the plywood top and find it reasonably dry and warm. Actually quite warm right above the oval opening in the inner cover. The roof developed some mold from some condensation. Probably next year I will rebuild it as a gable instead of flat and add two gable vents (holes) for cross ventilation. I don’t have many dead bees in front of the hives. The temperatures are now up and down below freezing. Monday was a warmer day, and the bees started to bring a little bit of pollen (alder? black willow?) and clean the hives. They didn’t bring out many dead bees, just a few. Nor they try to vent at the hive entrance. I am looking forward to seeing if they did well this winter but it is too early now. I hope that that warm top spot on the plywood didn’t lie to me. And I will see what warm (I think) moisture did to them. It cannot be worse than the winter before.