Beekeeping | Are Your Bees Too Hot? Will A Fan Work?

Beekeeping is hard on bees on very hot days. What can we do to cool down our hives? Let's try a fan.

LIVESTREAM EVERY THURSDAY AT 7 p.m. Central Time. Here's the link:

BEETEAM6 INFO:

ULTIMATE ONLINE BEEKEEPING COURSE

✅ If you are new to beekeeping or you keep failing, I strongly recommend you take my Ultimate ONLINE Beekeeping Course. This bundle includes all 7 of my online courses: Beginning Beekeeping, Mite Control, Spring: SurvivAL, Supering, swarms & Splits, Advanced Beekeeping, My Popular Queen Rearing Course, A Day In The Apiary With Me and How To Get Your Bees Through The Winter. Here's the link:

Subscribe To My Channel Please & Hit My Notification Bell:

👀Take a look at our book that Sheri and I wrote, Backyard Beekeeping from our website and we will autograph it for you:

💯OUR ONLINE BEEKEEPING CLASSES:
Check out my Inspection Guide which you can download and print off to help guide you on your hive inspections:

Take my online beekeeping course on "Spring Management.” Enjoy this online course from the comfort of your home. Save the gas money, and watch my course on your one time, in the privacy of your home. Learn at your own pace! Here's the link:

DISCLAIMER: Some links in this description might be affiliate links which means if you purchase a product or service using a link I provide, I may receive a small commission. There is no extra charge to you. Thank you so much for supporting my channel which enables me to continue to produce more videos for you.

💪BEEKEEPING SUPPLIES I RECOMMEND:

🌻FEED YOUR BEES:
Plan ahead for spring. Feed your bees in the spring by using my Feeding board known as the Burns Bees Feeder. Safely feed your bees from the top. Great way to help you build up your bees of winter physiology. Check it out:
Feeding Additives:

📬If you'd like to send something to add to the store front to spruce up my back drop, send it to David Burns, PO BOX 254, Catlin, IL 61817

Whoa, you made it all the way down here! Thank you ♥️ Love you

[Cypher]

You should have put something over the other holes in the feeder to stop the airflow coming down thorough those holes just to come back up through the fan.

The path of least resistance won’t be ventilating from the bottom of the hive - it’ll be from the holes right next to the fan.

I’d love to see a follow up showing that, if it’s different or not 👍

[bst]

lay the probe across the hole on top of the hole, then you won't be reading the bees at 15:58

[jaykrauss]

Hey David, I do heating and air for the main paycheck at the homestead. I know from grade school and all of my 20 years of heating and air experience then hot air rises. So I think having the fan pointed upward and pulling air through the hive is the best. But I'd also be curious to see how evaporative cooling would work. Evaporative cooling would probably work great if you're hive has a screen bottom board and you place the tray of water underneath the screen bottom board on the ground and as the water evaporated the water vapor would go up through the hive and cool the hive and the bees. This is also contingent on that the top lid has adequate ventilation to let the heat out of the top. Just a thought, would be neat to see if you put this into a video. Thanks for all your hard work can't wait to see you on the live stream this Thursday! Go beek squad!

[bst]

At this part of the test you need to give 10 minutes for things to change and settle down. Never look at instant reading imo sir. Great work!

[gene-sloca]

Nice experiment David. Appreciate you sharing this video for all of us.

[scbeautifulbees]

Lol. Man your stirring the air not removing it. One hole in and one hole out

[rickbegeman]

What are you trying to fix? Bearding is not a problem for the bees, what is your problem with it?
Are the bees dying? Nope, they are just taking a break and getting out of the way so the A/C bees can do their job.
Bees are the ultimate air conditioning experts, they all come with a fan on their
The problem I see with a fan is you cannot control the humidity.
If you start moving that much air through the hive, you will dry out the brood. You WILL hurt the bees more than help!!!!

I'd guess that you have not played with a broodminder setup.
I'd recommend you use some internal temp monitoring.
50-75% humidity and 92 -98°F internal temp is what the bees want, roughly.
In fact in your video you are trying different fan positions and not moving the hive temp off the ~97° brood temp that they want.
The bees were preventing the fan from making a change, it appears.

The European Honey bee prefers higher ambient temps than a human, do not transfer your needs to the bees.
In some geographic locations even a top vent can cause the hive to dry out.
My worst day this season was Aug 14 Weather Source says my temp was 105.2, my broodminder recorded a high of 101.9, No die-off, no dead brood.
Outdoor humidity went down to 20% that day, that night my internal humidity dipped only 8% to 40.
The bees are averaging 46-47% humidity over the summer, with a spread of 18% - 85% humidity outside.
This is on a 2 box hive One Deep and one medium, with an insulated lid, and no top vent, solid bottom.

NO FAN ON MY BEES Except the leaf blower when I'm harvesting honey!

[gene-sloca]

Stay hydrated David. Get a good cup of coffee.. Looking forward to seeing your Live Stream Thursday.

[j.clarkhelton]

David, maybe add a cork or foam vibration absorber under the fan. The vibration from the fan may affect the bees.

[Pegasus]

I love ThermoPro thermometers. I use them all the time when smoking or grilling. Haven't really thought about using one to monitor my beehives. Nice experiment! As for 12V fans, particularly computer fans, the air flow aways goes towards the frame (where the wires are).

[craigjackson]

Screen board, your feeding board, all holes open, top lid block up a little. Working mostly, in the AZ desert I've run a mister over the hive when it pushing 110 and up .. yes running water for them about 6 ft away

[kathyhathaway]

David I started using these fans last year on a few of my colonies an I have saw less of bearding from them with the fan on these . I also use screen bottom an screen top inter covers an I also prop up my lid on the front.

[sitivene]

It's hot in Texas. I use a canopy to provide shade and a mister. The mister both cools the hives and provides water.

[jeffperry]

Great video. Positive example of citizen scientist at work. It would be interesting on temp differential from bottom board and out going air on top. Temp differential 5 degrees it would slowly pull heat out over time and stabilize. It has to pull heat from frames, wax, etc and will eventually pull out that heat that radiated in frames. I have many years of experience in hvac and refrigeration. Well done.

[lesjohnson]

Air like water flows towards the path of least resistance. You may need to plug the other vents in the top cover so that all air is pulled up from the bottom of the hive body.

[j.clarkhelton]

Maybe mount the probe underneath the screen bottom board. Maybe mount the probe directly underneath the fan on top of the feeding board screened hole. The probe will only read the temp. and not be affected by the air flow.

[josephvenezia]

You should close those other holes. Air is not being pulled from the bottom. I'm sure it's coming in the other two hole on either side of the fan

[MF]

The CFM on that fan is only about 31. You would need something that moves more air to see any difference. I wouldn't use this fan on a computer let alone a hive. I think if you increase the CFM to around 45 or 50 you would see more of a difference. You can also get an adapter that would allow you to use a 120mm fan which would definitely move more air.

[heavymechanic]

Screen inner-cover might be worth-it in a heat wave, I used them before and honey dried down very well.. Years ago, electric fans were placed in an RV to remove heat, after hours it was still very hot inside. I don't believe that small fan will have much benefit just like the fan on a PC runs steady when processing large files.

[veronicac]

What triggers drone eviction in the fall? All I can find researching is that bees kick them out in preparation for winter, which I already knew. I assumed it was the dearth, but my bees are still bringing in tons of resources yet have started kicking out the drones