# Dead Bees in TBH, cold weather, intermittent warm weather, lots of ventilation - bad?



## Apower101 (Nov 29, 2015)

Hello,

I am a new bee keeper, and built my own top bar hive in July/August. I introduced bees from a nuc in mid-late August. I helped feed them quite a lot during September/October. There seemed to be a lot of bees, and they seemed fine. They went on flying for a long time though - all the way into early November. The hive has quite a lot of ventilation, which I am not sure is necessarily good: initially I designed it this way so that the bees wouldn't die from having a too high humidity. I opened up the bottom board to view the hive for the first time in a month, and noticed approximately 20-30 dead bees on the inside. Also, there was quite a lot of honey in the hive last time I checked, but I don't know if it is enough for the winter: approximately 3 full frames + some partially full frames. Also, the bees are staying in a clump on the same frames; they haven't moved at all.

What should I do? Seal up the gaps? Support feed them?

Thanks
Apower101


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## Westhill (Jul 26, 2012)

I'm also new, but here is what I understand--if I'm wrong, someone please correct me--When bees are cold, they "cluster"--they hang together in a clump to keep each other warm. Usually they do this when it's below about 50 degrees fahrenheit (10 degrees C). If it's that cold, or colder, don't open up the hive because it makes it very hard for them to keep themselves warm.

The dead bees may just be the normal bees who die-- a few die every day, of old age, and if it's cold and they're clustering, none of the bees will leave the cluster to carry out the dead, so the dead ones accumulate until it gets warmer and the bees can come out of the cluster and clean up the hive.

If you feed them, don't use liquid feed, because it chills them. You can use sugar cake--I take 6 ounces of water, 1 teaspoon of vinegar, 4 pounds of sugar, mix them in a bowl until it's like wet sand, then press the wet sugar into a pie tin and put it in the oven on low heat for an hour or so. It hardens up into a block and you can put it in the hive, where they eat it. (Sorry for the American measurements, maybe you can convert them!)

You do need ventilation even in the winter, but if you have a lot of it, maybe you can close up some of it so it's less drafty, or put bales of hay or a fence around the hive to block the wind.

I have a Langstroth hive so I can't advise about the top-bar design, but hopefully someone else who knows more can add their insight. Hopefully they can tell you the best place to put the sugar feed. Good luck!


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