Change in the weather

[EK.Bee]

All this lovely weather couldn't last forever
Time to check your strapping / weigh down the roof

See below:

Weather type:
Gales and Heavy Rain
Alert risk period:
02/10/14 09:00 until 04/10/14 03:00
Alert details:
A deep area of low pressure is going to move across Iceland on Friday, trailing a cold front over the UK for the end of the week and introducing strong winds to the northern half of the UK. NW Scotland could see Southerly gale to Severe gale force winds during Thursday night. The strength of the winds may affect ferry crossings for western and northern Scotland and across the Irish Sea/N.Channel also some bridges. For all of northern half of UK, the strong winds combined with heavy rain could bring difficult conditions on the roads throughout Friday.

[GRIZZLY]

Looks like our weather is going back to normal then ?.

[lindsay s]

All this lovely weather couldn't last forever
Time to check your strapping / weigh down the roof.

Do you mean like this? Attachment 2139

[Jon]

You sure you got enough weight on there Lindsay! Must blow a right gale on Orkney.

[EK.Bee]

That's just their summer weights in Orkney

[lindsay s]

You sure you got enough weight on there Lindsay! Must blow a right gale on Orkney.

Learnt from experience Jon. Quite a few years ago I had an empty hive completely blown over and two with bees lost their roofs and crown boards. Luckily for me the land owners spotted it when they were checking for storm damage and phoned me right away, no harm was done to the bees. My apiary is quite exposed and about half a mile from home and in the middle of winter there is not enough daylight for me to check my hives when I’ve finished work.
Yesterday I put my hives to bed for the winter, no winter treatments are needed here yet!!! They were checked for weight and three stones were put on the roofs (only one in the summer). It’s a pain in the butt moving the stones when I check the hives in the New Year but its better safe than sorry.
The above photo I used before in a similar thread on this forum but YES my hives do look like this.

[SteveW316]

Reminds me of my time in Shetland!! You southern folk have it easy ;-)

[fatshark]

Do you mean like this? Attachment 2139

I wouldn't fancy hefting that hive.

If you go into the winter on a double brood, does it end up in spring as a brood and a half?

[lindsay s]

The hives are hefted before the roofs are added and I over winter on single B.S. broods and 14x12 broods. I would like more stones but I don't think the roofs can take it. There is mesh over the holes in the crown board and the hives always have an empty super between the crown board and the roof but with no insulation.
Fatshark I hope your new Everynucs are well weighed down and in a sheltered spot and have you managed to get them bursting with bees and stores in time for the winter?

[fatshark]

The Everynucs are boiling with bees. So much so that I was concerned last weekend that they might swarm. They are in a very sheltered corner of the garden, but strapped to the stand "just in case". I've been very pleased with them. I'm feeding them fondant (I only feed fondant these days), about a kilogram at a time, in the built-in wooden feeder (you might remember that mine are National-framed in what is essentially a Langstroth-size box). I've had no problems with the bees building brace comb in the feeder. It's got a wide enough entrance that you can slide in a big lump as soon as the last one is finished; you don't even need to remove the clear crownboard, just lift up the end, so almost no disturbance. You can see how the fondant is going just by lifting the roof. I've not treated for Varroa, but will use OA in mid-winter.

Why leave an empty super between the crownboard and the roof? Isn't that just dead space that the bees are effectively 'heating'. All mine have Kingspan-type insulation and the bees usually form a cluster shaped like a sort of flat pancake directly under the crownboard. They seem to overwinter fine like this and the crownboard is warm to the touch in mid-winter.