First Inspection of 2013

It's been five months since I took a look inside the hives. Throughout that time I've had to make educated guesses as to what was going on inside by carefully observing activity outside, but today it was warm enough to open up.

The first thing I noticed was that there were plenty of good-natured bees. That's a good sign because it suggests that they are well fed and have a viable queen.  As I lifted the first box on the stack I felt the unmistakable weight of honey; they did indeed have plenty of food. A quick glance at the middle box showed a large number of bees clustered on 3 frames which indicated they were looking after brood. So first impressions were good.

However, as I looked around I also noticed that woodlice had taken up residence, suggesting there was damp. Sure enough as I inspected the frames and the crown board it became obvious that there was a lot of black and a bit of green mould on some of the woodwork.

I knew this moisture could not have been due to penetrating rain because all the hive joints were sealed up with a bee glue called propolis. There was only one cause for the dampness - condensation due to inadequate ventilation.

As the bees munch through their honey to generate heat they also exhale water vapour; roughly 700 ml for every kilogram of honey. Over the last five months several litres had been released and with low outside temperatures this moisture had simply condensed on the cold interior walls of the hive.

I didn't have this problem last year because the stack was only two boxes high, whereas this year it was three. That extra box reduced the air circulation which resulted in the damp.

Bees hate a damp hive so by the time I'd finished my inspection they were re-housed in clean dry boxes, but how I managed that is another post....