# Survival of bees in Kuwait



## atinrastogi (Jan 8, 2013)

Dear Friends,
I am a Beekeeper in Kuwait with around 450 hives, engaged in beekeeping for over 15 years. 
In Kuwait the maximum temperatures in summer months touch 50 degrees celsius and the temperature remains in the average range of 30 degrees to 48 degrees celsius for over 4 months.
Most of my bees die during the tough summer months and I have to import fresh bee batches.
Though there are limited forage areas for the bees, I have been unable to find a solution to protect bees during the high summer temperatures.
I would request you to share from your experience some solution to protect bees during the high summer temperatures.

Heartful thanks,
Atin Rastogi
Kuwait City


----------



## gone2seed (Sep 18, 2011)

I would start with screened bottom boards and heavily insulated tops and west sides.You have probably already done that.Our maximum temps are 110 F and we don't get that often.I can not imagine keeping bees in temps over 120 degrees.Good luck to you and your bees.


----------



## Markt (Feb 8, 2012)

I think you're going to have problems regardless of insulation/ventilation just because of the fact that the air temperature is so much higher than the bees would like to keep their cluster... I've done some reading and brood dies if it reaches 41.1 degrees celcius for an extended period. Their natural instinct is going to be to ventilate the entrances of the hive to cool it but this will only blow in more 50 degree celcius air. It sounds a little impractical but is there any way you could bury them in the ground with entrances still open so that they could breathe? Maybe some sort of an insulated roof over a 6 foot hole dug into the ground that could be removed in the cooler weather? That way you could still work the bees and they could still leave the hive with cooler air surrounding them. Also are these African or European honey bees?


----------



## RobWok (May 18, 2011)

Artificial AC would be expensive and difficult. You may be able to put a false roof on above the primary roof, or shade them. The top of hive can get very hot. Many roofs are now coated with alumium, which in some cases can absorb heat as much as if they were painted black. I would suggest shade cloth above the hive - I did that in the summer with my hives and it helped.

If you have a dry climate, but have access to water, I would also suggest misters. You can get misting hose, or mist emitters from greenhouse supply companies that mist water. The evaporative effect should cool the hive. Maybe fix one above the top fo the hive so the cooling affect would flow down.


----------



## hpm08161947 (May 16, 2009)

FIrst of all, I would like to know why they die. Do they die from lack of water. Or does the brood simply cook. Are they in full shade? Has insulation been tried? Bees usually do a pretty good job of maintaining their environment, but I suppose 50F is getting a bit extreme, but I also bet there is a "work-around".


----------



## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

Swamp coolers (evaporation units) work well in dessert like conditions. I think they can cool as much as 30 degrees this might get you through the hottest part of the day. 

It may sound crazy but could you set up a cooler unit to cellar the bees like some Canadian beekeepers do? You could then condense your 450 down to 200+ Nucs store during the summer and have a good start to build from. It might be cheaper than buying packages?
I have no experience with this but it was just a thought.


----------



## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

To be sure....make sure they have access to plenty of water. When temps get high foraging shifts to water. Bees collect water, return to the hive and deposit droplets throughout the nest. Evaporating water will lower the temperature. Although our summer temps don't get as high as yours, it still gets well over 100F and the bees are able to keep the nest cool enough to survive....as long as they have plenty of water.


----------



## gone2seed (Sep 18, 2011)

RobWok has a good idea.We use shade cloth on our greenhouse and it drops the afternoon temperature by about 10F.


----------



## mgolden (Oct 26, 2011)

Just wondering if the foragers can stand 50F and not parish? Assume they have ample water. If they can't survive, suspect it tough going.

What temp is ground at say 8 ft deep? Temp in Alberta at 8 ft deep is about 39.5F year round. Could you house hives in an insulated building with bee entrances only to outside and use circulated water and rads with fans to cool interior of building. Water would be circulated through a long underground piping that cools the water. 

Works in Alberta for summer cooling and with a heat pump one can extract heat from the water for winter home heating. Just a thought as I know little about Kuwait.


----------



## Davidnewbeeboxbuilder (Oct 6, 2012)

Cooler under ground


----------



## jdmidwest (Jul 9, 2012)

Probably die from beating their little wings to nubs fanning the hive in that heat!


----------



## atinrastogi (Jan 8, 2013)

hpm08161947 said:


> FIrst of all, I would like to know why they die. Do they die from lack of water. Or does the brood simply cook. Are they in full shade? Has insulation been tried? Bees usually do a pretty good job of maintaining their environment, but I suppose 50F is getting a bit extreme, but I also bet there is a "work-around".


Have experimented with housing bees in a shaded area, normally white tents, 
made available ample water, sugar syrup, bee pollen during the summer months when forage area considerably shrinks.


----------



## WWW (Feb 6, 2011)

I like the underground idea, I have seen it used in Alaska to protect bees from extreme cold, should work for extreme heat as well and is cost effective.


----------



## Markt (Feb 8, 2012)

Yeah I think underground is the only way to get the air temp down... Gonna have to get it down to at least 40 for them to pull through


----------



## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

Atin, are there any caves in the area? In the American Bee Journal I remember seeing colonies of bees in some desert areas build in caves and on the underside of cliffs.


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Funny thing is bees are able to manage periods of cold weather seasons better than managing HOT weather seasons. 
The only thing that will help your bees tolerate the heat is shade and providing water. All their energy and resources will be spent trying to cool the hive down, and if all the energy is spent cooling the hives, little resources will be coming in and the brood nest will shrink if not stop. 

Your hive then is on a timeclock, with the brood nest small if not stopped and your bees still in full flight your average bee lifespan still remains at a 3 to 6 week span the hive population will crash 


I put my hives indoors to help manage the cold. To do the same with the bees to manage the heat would be very costly. You would need an air condition system to keep air temp down to 5 degrees C otherswise they would leave the hives in the shed.

The secret with wintering hives is that the bees entering the winter are winter bees who has life spans of many months. They are able to sit in a hive for many months without flight allowing them to endure cold flightless weather. Once brood rearing resumes in the spring the bees timeclock starts up once again and normal colony function resumes.


----------



## hpm08161947 (May 16, 2009)

In this country it is not unusual for beekeepers to load their bees up on a truck and transport them to warmer environments for the winter months. I wonder if the opposite is possible in Kuwait. How far would one have to move bees to get to a cooler environment for the summer months. 450 hives would make for a nice heavy truck load.


----------



## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

Maybe the op can share some information about the honey market there.

I think honey is very expensive there and gas/fuel/energy very cheap.


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

hpm08161947 said:


> In this country it is not unusual for beekeepers to load their bees up on a truck and transport them to warmer environments for the winter months. I wonder if the opposite is possible in Kuwait. How far would one have to move bees to get to a cooler environment for the summer months. 450 hives would make for a nice heavy truck load.


thats sounds like the best idea yet. Got to think backwards with this situation 
I dont know of his country very well but thinking the security of his hives may be at risk if he takes them too far from his home


----------



## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

That was an interesting idea to migrate the bees to a higher elevation to avoid the hottest extremes. But, from the CIA World Factbook (no joke )



> Kuwait*lowest point: *Persian Gulf 0 m
> *highest point:* unnamed elevation 306 m
> 
> 
> https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2020.html


Thats only a little over 1000 ft elevation.


----------



## scorpionmain (Apr 17, 2012)

From my experience in Kuwait ^^^this would be the optimum set up.
Also, I don't know the exact location of the OP in Kuwait but the closer he could get to the Gulf the better.
Cooler temps near the Persian Gulf.
Out in the desert, I don't see bees having a chance.
120 degree heat and when the wind blows it doesn't cool. It has more like a hairdryer effect.
You can get cooler by getting out of the wind.
Odd, I know.
...and it can get real cold at night and during the winter.
I just don't see bees thriving there. Maybe if the OP got an Egyptian strain, but still...
My recommendation would be to move.


----------



## hpm08161947 (May 16, 2009)

Rader Sidetrack said:


> That was an interesting idea to migrate the bees to a higher elevation to avoid the hottest extremes. But, from the CIA World Factbook (no joke )
> 
> 
> 
> Thats only a little over 1000 ft elevation.


Yea,,, it looks like migrating close to the Persian Gulf might be the only hope. I have no idea, but suspect the temps would be cooler on the Gulf. 

As far as security goes... I wonder if a guy with 450 hives doesn't live with his bees... 

Kuwait City (on the Gulf) seems to average about 115F during the summer.... maybe survivable.


----------



## atinrastogi (Jan 8, 2013)

I have European bees in the hives. 
Over 99% of land area in Kuwait is desert/ semi-desert. There are frequent sandstorms, along with high temperatures.
So potentially I do not have many places to move around.

Kuwait has a few green areas where there are sufficient underground lakes. My hives are located in a green area.


----------



## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

I am thinking Solar panels on the lids with a 12v fan under the bottoms of the hives to keep the air moving maybe a water squirter to make a swamp cooler out of it.


----------



## Aussie (Feb 9, 2013)

We are beekeepers from Australia and this summer has been one our hottest for a long time.The temperature were our bees are in January was 50C in the shade.Bee Hives that we left a box of honey on was good but Bee Hives with a empty honey box on suffered the most.
And in those temperatures you need to have water with in 100 metres or so.


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

The bees are going to "swamp cool" the inside of the hive. I think all you can really do is try to cool the outside. First, of course, keep it in the shade and provide the bees water. But then you could set up some way to keep the outside of the hive moist. Maybe something on top that holds some water to evaporate it there. Maybe something porous on the sides that you can keep moist. If you had some kind of tub on top that had a slow leak on all four sides that would leak down on some cloth on the sides, you could keep evaporative cooling on the top and four sides... then you would just have to fill the tub every morning.


----------



## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

If he's got 450 hives spread around, I don't think he can fill the tub every morning LOL

It's a bit long term, but if it is possible to create groves of green trees, that may be some help.


----------



## bfriendly (Jun 14, 2009)

Yes but it could be set up (if necessary). 

I think the combination of full shade/cover (Could just be posts, frame, and a tarp), water source for bees very close by... And...
Michael Bush's "Bee swamp cooler".....

An elevated water tank or pressure water supply (pump) hooked to "Soaker hose" (irrigation pipe / a type of garden hose perforated to slowly water plants) and wet burlap / cloth laid on the hives. Think about it as if setting up an irrigation system for plants, with 450 plant sites (top of each hive) to water. Not really that complex and cheap/readily available parts. 

Or manually dunk the cloth /burlap in water and put on hives every day. Would not take too long if all hives are in the same yard?

If it works to hose down a semi load of bees to keep them from overheating while truck is stopped, I don't see why it wouldn't work for this.


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>If he's got 450 hives spread around, I don't think he can fill the tub every morning LOL

Probably not... but that depends on cheap unskilled labor like sons and daughters... and how big the tub is and how fast it leaks is what determines how long it lasts...


----------



## nael (Sep 9, 2014)

Dear Api friend,
to protect your bees in the summer you need to do simple things like covering the bees from three sides with green rocoleen which is used for gardening where the room like place should be facing the south with the open side and add to that covering of palm tree leafs with circulating water that drips from top to bottom on the sides to create an air conditioned aria this will help a lot in the summer.
If you need more help you can call me at 99850825
Nael AlSaif


----------



## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

woohoo. Thank you Nael. Now we can all learn something about keeping bees in the climate of Kuwait!


----------



## gjt (Jul 24, 2014)

Or a drip line.

I have seen cooling where portion of the sunny side of the building was painted black, with a false wall. The wall was really a chimney with opening on bottom _inside_, and on top, above roof line. Then an opening on the opposite side of the building, an other opening was on the bottom about the same size. There was a drip line just outside of the opening. The idea is that the warm air rising in the chimney sucks the air through the building from the other side, and pulls in the cooling evaporating drips.

I think it is called a "solar chimney", but it is what you described as a "swamp cooling". I think this might be possible to implement per hive...



Michael Bush said:


> >If he's got 450 hives spread around, I don't think he can fill the tub every morning LOL
> 
> Probably not... but that depends on cheap unskilled labor like sons and daughters... and how big the tub is and how fast it leaks is what determines how long it lasts...


----------

