# Ventilation - tell your story and methods?



## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Bees go to some effort to maintain their brood area at 93-94 degrees F. 

And they manage to do so under a wide variety of external temperatures. See the chart on the page labeled as "186":
https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream...d=70E2E9DAE0E06137653CD914FE2FFCCD?sequence=1

I don't see bearding as anything more than bee's _hanging out_. Presumably they are satisfied with the conditions inside the hive, given that they aren't all off otherwise hauling in water or fanning or heating etc.

If you change the afternoon hive "ventilation" to make yourself happy, are you going to come back later that day to alter it again as the day cools off and transitions into night-time temperatures? :shhhh: And how many days are you willing to do that?


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## jlw35 (Jul 26, 2015)

I think my concern as to hive venting or not has more to do with comb falling off the bar.
When the temps were in the low 100 degree range recently, we had 3 bars of honey drop into the hive.

Maybe two different threads here, but as I said, that was my concern.

Jeff

and we have not ventilated. Glad to hear of the op's experience, I think I will not do the same.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Then switch to the langs set up. No issue with comb falling off at over 100s here all week long. I
have to switch to langs with wired wax foundation frames. Anyways the bees know how to regulate their hives
with full entrance opening. The top is 2" migratory cover made out of cheap picket fence panel.


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## jlw35 (Jul 26, 2015)

Sure, I'll just switch right over.
Thanks for the insight.
Jeff


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## AvatarDad (Mar 31, 2016)

I'm sorry to hear that JLW. I've never had that happen and GA is a bit hotter than IL most times. (There are exceptions when Chicago turns into the 3rd circle). I wonder what is going on?

My hives are in partial shade (yes, all the advice is put them in sun, but my yard doesn't have that anywhere except my roof). They have covers with fairly open sides which allows a lot of air flow over the bars. I've never had a comb failure except for one dramatically dopey "user error" event. (Working my way through the hive and I come to one "really heavy" comb of honey. Pull... heavy! Pull harder... POP. They had welded it to the bottom of the hive, and it still sat right there after I pulled the bar off of it. I love lessons like that; you never forget them).


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## Scout142 (May 23, 2017)

Thanks for sharing the results of your experiment. I was contemplating trying something similar with my TBH. I have a feeder on my follower board and when I removed the bottles, it is effectively a vent at the rear of the hive. It seemed to make no difference whether the bottles were in or out during the hot weather. I've tried leaving the bottom board open and closed for a few days at a time - again, no perceptible difference to the bearding. There are a few minor gaps either between bars or where the follow board isn't quite tight to the sidewall that might serve as ventilation if the bees chose to, but the girls propolize all of these gaps. 
We've had slightly cooler weather here in VA the last few days and I've also notice more foraging activity. SO, I think the girls are just hanging out when it was really hot and the flow was down.
How big and where are your entrances? I used three 1" holes towards the top, on the long side and near end of the hive. That's only about 2.4 square inches. I feel like that is too small and would have a direct impact on their ability to ventilate properly.


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## jlw35 (Jul 26, 2015)

AvatarDad,

We are careful to check for comb attachment to the side and bottom of the hive, so this was not the case. The comb was already on the bottom of the hive when we opened for an inspection.
I guess that it was just not attached properly by the bees. In any case, we recycled the comb by smashing the contents, putting it into a small aluminum pan and leaving it in the hive for 2 days. The bees gobbled up the honey and left the comb for us. Not a bad trade, but sorry to see their hard work come to no avail ( at least on those combs ).

Haven't had a problem since ( at least as far as comb attachment is concerned ).

Jeff


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## Corto (May 29, 2017)

My hive has three screened vent holes on the long side near the top. (Beethinking hive). Early in the season, the bees propolized the vents. As it got hotter I noticed they opened them up. So at least for me, the holes are there if they want them, and they can close them if they don't and they seem to be doing their thing without any effort from me.

And my bees beard quite a bit anytime overnight temps are above about 70F.

From a few nights ago, you can see the vent hole near the top of the beard.:


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

Our usual setup, bottom to top, is:

Ventilated Freeman Beetle Trap bottom boards, with oil trays installed. There are vents cut in these bottom boards, above the tray, so that the ventilation offered is nearly as good as a screened bottom board. In winter, we block these vents with foam plugs, allowing just a small opening.

We use the usual scheme of open entrances or entrance reducers.

We frequently have top feeders on the hive. We've added screened ventilation holes to ours. The screens prevent our bees from using these as a top entrance, but also stop robbers. We once managed to leave a feeder with syrup on a hive into December, with tragic results. The moisture killed the bees, which were otherwise healthy and vigorous.

We have seen rampant condensation form as a result of putting a Boardman water jar at the entrance to a hive. Removing the water source cleared up the condensation before any serious harm was done.

When feeders are off, we use notched inside top covers. A few of these have screens, used on weak hives so they don't have to defend a second entrance. We typically use three notches, each 3/4 to 1" wide, in the inside top covers, somewhat more than stock.

In winter, we use a quilt box, providing a pillowcase with 2-3 inches of cedar shavings above the hive, with a notched inside top cover above it. We have on occasion found one of these to be damp, in which case we pull it and dry it. These generally seem sufficient for our mild winters ... Yankees use other schemes.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Have a couple top bar hives in my back yard. They've never lost a comb because it just don't get that hot here. 
It is possible to hit 100 but is pretty rare. Heat index 100 happens but not every day or week.
Bees are excellent at ventilation. They're mechanical engineers with wings.


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## Delta 21 (Mar 4, 2016)

KS summer runs at least a week or three in the 100s. I tried a vent bar at the back of the hives but the ladies were just propolizing them shut so I took them out.

My 3 have run fine with a 5"-7" wide X 1/2" tall entrance thru the summer behind robber screens. 3" wide may be plenty sufficient. Squeezed down to 1/2" for winter. No gasps between any top bars and no other entrances or vent holes.

It has to be choked down and air tight enough that they can control the flow. If you have no other signs of a swarm, I would thing my thousand or 2 that beard everyday in the heat are indicators that the AC/ventilation job is light enough inside that it doesnt require everyone to maintain.

I think we humans over think this.


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## trishbookworm (Jun 25, 2016)

I have 3 slightly larger than cork sized entrance holes, solid bottoms, bars pushed tightly together - the entrance holes are the only way large amounts of air get in. I have a top bar hive that is langstroth-deep wide - so a tanzanian hive. Not had a fallen comb in the 2 summers I have run these (4 ttbhs last year, 6 this year).

A friend had a kenyan tbh with a 4" entrance about 1.5 bees high - she was getting dropped combs when the hive was closed up. I suggested she enlarge the hive entrance - no more dropped combs. It has the 4" slot entrance and 2 "eyeholes" above it. 

The bees work very hard to ventilate. It may be they would dehydrate nectar into honey better under some circumstances with a screened bottom board the size of a langstroth - I'd have to compare 2 hives to see if that was true. When it is a dew point of 70 on an 85 degree day, good luck dehydrating anything... except people! 

If you reply, please add dimensions of the entrance and any history of fallen comb as well as additional ventilation, just out of curiousity...


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## AvatarDad (Mar 31, 2016)

Reading through the other posts here made me think about my follower board. My hives have been warping and settling with age, and the follower is indeed fairly leaky... not enough for bees to get through but enough for air... not tight at all. So, maybe my hives are ventilated enough as they are. I think these particular bees may just like to beard more (I thought they were hotter, but maybe they just like to hang out).

Several folk asked about entrances: I wanted to avoid seasonal changes for mice, so I use a 3/8" by 6 inch slot. I've got a sliding shim in there so I can close it down to an inch or two (which I've used to control robbing and also for winter), but it is wide open now for summer.


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## NicoleV (Jan 20, 2017)

I have 10 tbh's, most have 6 one inch diameter entrance holes drilled into the front. Some have 7/8 inch holes and two hives have 3/4 inch holes. (I was experimenting to see what size holes they liked the best) They are all located in the shade. Only one colony beards in the hot weather and it's the smaller colony that has the smallest entrance holes. It is also the only hive this year that had a comb collapse. 

I tried to help ventilation by propping up the first bar (which was not built on yet) by shoving a stick under it. It changed the bearding patern, but didn't stop it. 

All the hives have solid bottoms.


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## Delta 21 (Mar 4, 2016)

The only time I had trouble with comb falling was the first inspection where it was too hot in the bee yard and I disrupted the air flow in the hive by opening it in the heat and sun:no:. Half way thru the virgin wax just started to melt and drop I tried to learn as much as I could that day! Emotional stressful discouraging thing for a new-beek.

I have solid bottoms, gabled/ventilated roofs with 1" pink board R-5 insulation that sets right on top of the top bars. KS summers run 15 days or more in the hundreds.


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## threepingsthree (Mar 3, 2014)

My newest generation of hives have a lid with a drip edge all around, and are topped with 3" polyiso and then EPDM rubber that is painted a light color. The front has 5 1" holes drilled in it, and at the back of the bottom board there are two 1" holes drilled in it covered in #8 hardware cloth. Those rear corks are last to come out, and usually that takes care of the heat here in southeast KY


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## Jon Wolff (Apr 28, 2013)

AvatarDad, being a fellow Georgian down in the Augusta area, I used to get bearding a lot, too. I stopped it by lifting my roofs off the hives with bricks to let air flow underneath and I placed a screened ventilation bar in the back (3/4" holes). This year instead of a ventilation bar in one of the hives, I used a bar with four entrance holes drilled along one side so the foragers could access the back of the hive instead of having to go through the front (my hives have end entrances). They haven't bearded, and in fact they capped the honey faster this year than last. I don't know if it's related or not, but this is a hive I didn't expect to take any honey from this year, but I've already harvested a gallon after they filled the hive, then they filled it again and I took three full bars to give to another hive I recently extracted from a friend's house, and I expect them to replace those when the goldenrod starts blooming.


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