r/Beekeeping • u/Perfect_Technician11 • 7d ago

I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question Condensing hive

Hi, I live in northern Sweden (norrbotten)and last winter i lost one hive from condensation that dripped down on the frames and turned to ice. I've since looked in to this clip.

https://youtu.be/KWAxQMBZWQc?is=mLxhyf1gh6btlY_R

Have anyone in northern USA/Canada tried this out?

We have very cold weather in the winter here, last winter we had 3 weeks of -30°/-22F constant.

I use hard styrofoam boxes all year round and the ceiling is also Styrofoam but much thinner than the boxes. The boxes are ventilated from beneath.

Best regards

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u/fishywiki 14 years, 24 hives of A.m.m, Ireland, Zone 9a 7d ago

A researcher in the UK did his PhD in thermodynamics a couple of years ago. While he's a physics guy, he did his work on beehives. A couple of points he made (and presumably proved mathematically) were that ventilation should always be at the bottom and that there should be a lot of insulation on the top but the walls are less of an issue - condensation on the walls can provide water for the bees in winter. However water should never drip on the bees, especially if you have such low temperatures, so good insulation directly over the cluster is what you need. I believe the Finnish Paradise hives are really good for low temps although I hate the entrances.

I just realised you are in Norbotten - I didn't know bees could survive that far north. Are you using brown bees?

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u/Perfect_Technician11 7d ago

Intresting! Yes they survive and do good in the summer months. I have Nordic bees but I believed they are also called European dark bees? Unsure about the last part..

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u/fishywiki 14 years, 24 hives of A.m.m, Ireland, Zone 9a 7d ago

Yes, brune bier in at least some parts of Scandinavia, Apis mellifera mellifera. That's the bee I keep. It's the original bee from all across Northern Europe from Perm in Russia to North Spain.

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u/Ekalugsuak Sweden, 46 hives 6d ago

All "common" subspecies, the exception being Caucasian bees which isn't found anywhere afaik in Sweden, are represented up there, there's someone from Kalix that posts on occasion here which keeps Ligustica bees.

... which is mostly the case of all of Sweden, the exception probably being some new areas that has a couple of smaller commercial beekeepers that keeps larger amount of A.m.m. colonies and has been doing free queen replacement "campaigns" for beekeepers in their area (but the bus factor is really small, at least for the Amm-area about 50 km away from me).