Honey Bees in WINTER Record Cold Thermal Imaging Shows where the cluster is. 

Thank you Macro, it's always great to receive your comments! I appreciate that you watch so many of my videos!

@@FrederickDunn Why would a bee keeper want mason bees ?

Thanks, and yes Erie generally gets blasted with lake effect and where I live, 700 feet higher than Erie, we usually get more, but with this system, the heavy hit was nearer the lake so it's not so bad out here. :)

I'm so glad you found my channel and am happy I can help you revisit honey bee keeping. Thank you for the nice compliments!

Thanks Trixiegirl and one thing for sure with weather is that nothing is for sure :) Thanks for watching and commenting as always :)

Thank you Duane and the same to you and your family :) !

Thank you, I'm so glad it was helpful for you. Wishing you all the best in Norway!

Hi Eva, the mason/orchard bee study is going to be a lot of fun! I already have a log that they have placed their eggs in, so we will have hatching and "hopefully" lots of new residents laying eggs. Thanks for watching and commenting!

Hi Timothy, I don't personally have an interest in the Layens hive just because I like the cross-hive compatibility of the Langstroth frame centered configurations. Every new hive design that requires unique frame dimensions requires me to store new single-purpose gear. This is why I stick with Observation hives, Langstroth, Flow, Long-lang and other configurations which still use the standard and widely available frames. Nothing against the Layens deep frames, but they just aren't for me. :)

Thank you so much Gary! Much appreciated.

You're welcome :) It's a common misunderstanding that a thermal camera can detect interior temps and that just, as you already know, isn't the case. Are you currently using insulated hives? If you are, what kind? Thanks for watching and taking time to comment Marta.

Although I have no personal experience with the device, I understand that the Broodminder monitors internal temperature and humidity and relays the info to your smartphone.

You're welcome Lewis, thanks for watching!

Thank you so much!

Thanks!

My pleasure

Hi Vino Farm, always great to see your comments. I don't have any experience with the Flir One... know why? Because I don't own a cell phone... (';').. a sad truth. I use the C2 for lots of stuff, even found a short in my tractor with it. And I can find out where mice are nesting. It's actually a lot of fun, but I completely understand that it's pricey. There are several good reviews on RU-vid about the Cell Phone configuration... sorry I don't know more. I'm glad to have the heavy snow as it really does help protect from the crazy cold temps.

Ha ha... No cell phone. You might be the last person! I thought you might have some experience with it since you seem to have lots of toys. The FLIR One does have better reviews on the latest model (Earlier model reviews were mixed.). I'm waiting for a price drop. I am very curious to look at my hives. Stay warm over there.

I like to be unplugged from society (';') and I'm not "traceable" : ) I liked your solar wall.. I'll be following your progress on that!

@Vino Farm - check out the Flir TG165

@Vino Farm, I love your channel and I have a FLIR One non-Pro version Android that I use for work. The image is a bit choppy when I move around, probably due to my crappy midrange smartphone, a Samsung On5. It does work, and I can take pictures with it, and lock the temperature range, which is what I need it to do. Battery life is my main concern. It has its own battery which is charged via a standard micro USB cable, and that drains pretty quickly, about 20-30 minutes of screen time tops.

You're welcome.. if you look close at bottom boards that have not been cleared, you'll still find vent holes which are made by the bees, these are not apparent until you take a very close look.

Thank you!

Glad you found a cheaper source Frances... I actually bought mine direct from Flir as they offered a veteran discount :)

Hi Phil, not for ventilation, but I do clear the entry and landing board when the weather warms. Clearing out the dead bees at the bottom and allowing them access for cleansing flights. But when it's in the 30's or lower, I don't' clear bottom entrances. All of my hives are vented through the top.

They do extremely well with stored honey above the cluster... they tend to fail to travel laterally to honey stores once they are centered. Their natural tendancy is to migrate up through winter, arriving just under the cover, then moving to other honey stores during warmer days. If they have brood, they will anchor in place... and that's the most frustrating aspect!

@@FrederickDunn -- Great news! My colony hasn't spread out to completely fill their two 10-frame brood boxes, so I'm going to consolidate them into a 6-over-6 or 7-over-7 arrangement with a spacer board blocking the unused portion of the hive. Brood low and centered, food stores above.

So glad you liked it!

Wow, that's terrible news... I actually don't do anything for them other than leave insulated lids on and plenty of honey. I also vent through the cover or top box just in case the bottom fills with dead bees that they can't clear from the entry. I hope you have a better experience this year....

KAI CHEN mites not cold

There is climate shift and arctic air is pushing south... or Dr Evil has a weather machine (';')

Appreciate it.

The centre of the polar vortex is currently situated just to west of Hudson Bay so that very cold air is flowing over the eastern 2/3 of N America whilst over the west and north-west of N America the winds are mild to warm having blown across the relatively warm Pacific Ocean. This circulation pattern is typical of the climate pattern that existed during the last ice age when contrary to media opinion, the western part of N America was dry and mild and the Bering Strait area(it was above sea-level during the times of major ice advance) was ice free as warmer air flowed into the Arctic regions to replace the cold air moving south. The driver of these conditions is low solar activity which can be easily detected in the Greenland ice cores where at times of low solar activity cosmic rays can more easily reach the earth (sun's magnetic field weakens so does not deflect cosmic rays away from the earth so easily). These cosmic rays which are very high energy charged particles from super nova in outer space, collide with atmospheric molecules and any molecules containing carbon can see the collision generating carbon14 isotopes in a small percentage of the collisions. Therefore by measuring C14 in ice cores we can see exactly when the sun was at a minimum. There are masses of paleo-climatological reports published by geological learned institutions but this valuable history of earth's changing climate cycles has been largely ignored by the media because it highlights the major flaws in the current climate debate which is based on political ambitions not facts.

Global warming. Just saying!

The exceptionally cold and snowy weather in the USA in 2018 is related to the position and intensity of the Polar Vortex and its effect on the position of the jet-stream over the USA. This year the position of the jet-stream has enhanced the movement of very cold air masses to move from the north of Canada into the eastern half of the USA. However when the jet-stream temporarily moved eastwards in the middle of February it introduced a warm moist south-westerly airflow to the south-eastern half of the USA and temperatures reached about 20C and the Pacific western side of the USA came under the North-West side of the jet-stream and cooled down dramatically with rain near the coast and snow over high ground. This year the centre of the Arctic cold pool has been positioned around Hudson Bay instead of the North Pole so much colder air was available to invade the USA when the jet-stream allowed. This extreme weather is a feature of this year whereas climate is the average of annual weather over a 30yr continuous period as defined by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). This year is also only about 12-18 months before the predicted end of solar cycle 24 when the sun reaches solar minimum. Solar cycle 24 was the weakest cycle for 100yrs and hence we have seen weather records which in some cases have stood for about 100yrs being broken. Solar cycle 25 is expected to be even weaker than cycle 24 and is predicted to be similar to cycles 5 and 6 which occurred 200yrs ago in the early 1800's during the Dalton Minimum. Astrophysicists studying the sun have noted that the measurements coming from NASA's satellites orbiting the sun are all showing that the electro-magnetic activity in the sun is going into a phase known as a Grand Solar Minimum and under such conditions the climate cools down as can be measured worldwide in proxy data such as ice-cores, lake-sediments, tree-rings, and human records of weather conditions such as those recorded in the Little Ice Age (LIA). The weather over the next 30 years will tell us whether the solar activity predictions and resultant weather are borne out or not but the amount and quality of solar data being collected on a continuous basis strongly suggests that we will experience more extreme weather up till 2100 at least, with lower overall average temperatures across the globe. This is a brief summary answer to your comment but you can find out more by looking for Grand Solar MInimum and solar cycles in Wikipedia and youTube where there are many reputable sites such as Oppenheimer Ranch Project and for pure science on the sun Prof.Valentina Zarkova who is a renowned astro-physicist.

Thank you Pedro, what language is this?

Frederick, that's Portuguese! I bet Pedro is from Portugal.

Olá para você também e obrigado pelo bom elogio! Desejo tudo de bom! E graças a outros para identificar o idioma adequado para a minha resposta!

Thanks Akemi!

Akemi Mitsueda eu sou do Brazil... Você conhece?

Hi SailingSolar, when I mention the Flir not working if hives were insulated, I was referring to seeing if colonies are alive inside and having the ability to see where they are located behind the hive walls. The Flir does work, just doesn't inform as well as it does with normal wooden hive walls. Thanks for clearing that up and I certainly welcome all perspectives. The Flir definitely has many uses, including locating mouse dens in winter :)

It has endless uses Daniel :) finding hiding grandkids.... that mouse in the hen house, and yes, to see where the brood is located and even if they have brood or are just remaining in torper. Pretty endless in possibilities :) heat leaks in the house, or any structure... yadda yadda... pays for itself pretty fast.

They survive by clustering and controlling their temperature. I don't wrap hives, just make sure they fit together well so the bees do not experience a draft.

@@FrederickDunn thank you for replying I have 2 hives this year and just getting some information how to help them survive

Sounds like they are doing well, but I can't personally speculate as to if they will survive.

Hi Martain, I'm so sorry to read that you've lost your honey bees. Your situation is a common one I'm afraid, a cluster of honeybees clustered in place and starving out with plenty of resources just inches away. Often, the culprit can be that during a warmup, the queen began to lay eggs... when that happens, the cluster is reluctant to leave the larva and will, at times, starve in place. If there were dead bees with their heads buried deep in cells with abdomens shrunken and sticking out, they were cleaning out the last bit of resources in the cells. How was the humidity inside the hive? Was there a lot of condensation? Other than the cover, I don't insulate any of my hives. As for the remaining honey, there is evidence that putting frames of honey into other hives doesn't necessarily boost them, so I suggest that you remove the capped honey frames and use them for yourself. Then you'll have frames of drawn comb that is ready for your next colony of bees. Make sure the frames you remove are well-ventilated storage so that no mold grows on the comb. I'm glad you don't want to quit... it is frustrating when a cluster of bees just doesn't migrate to where the honey is. In cases like that, even inner cover feeding wouldn't work as they just don't go there.

Frederick Dunn - Thanks for the response. The humidity wasn't bad. I did have a candy board above the top box. It was in a frame with a wire bottom, and an upper entrance. Above that was a hive top feeder with bedding material for insulation. This bedding material was not very moisture, and there was no moisture dripping from the inner or telescoping cover. Both the candle board and feeder with insulation were things I saw from another beekeeper. The telescoping cover had small pieces of the honeycomb sign board stapled in the corners for moisture release. I guess I'll be borrowing my friends extractor in the next couple of days.

Sounds like you had everything set up just fine. Did they ingest any of the candy? I'm headed to a beekeeper group next week and I'm sure there will be plenty of stories like this going around. Frustrating I know...

Frederick Dunn - They did go through some of the candy board. Also, unless I'm mistaken, there seemed to be more honey in the hive today then when I last checked it in the fall.

Martain Ferguson mites killed the bees

Back in the day, we used Starlight scopes... early 80's and had to rest our eyes for 5 minutes after every 15 of viewing... happily, those days are long gone. FLIR still has lots of military contracts.

There is hope as winter has just begun!

Just the predator guard flashing lights... we now have an electric fence around the entire apiary.

Cant stop re-watching all of your videos. Love them all.

Hi Michael... yes, all the neighbors in this area are very supportive of each other... occasionally someone will buy a house and move out here from the city, then use their backyard as a shooting range (';') not my favorite... We are still receiving snowfall ar 3" per hour today...

Yikes, that doesn't sound very considerate

It isn't, and the immediate neighbors to them have a horse farm... the gunfire definitely impacts the horses and keeps them nervous. They are half a mile from me, but that's still too close. :) I'll still take that over city living any day :)

You're very welcome and I always appreciate your comments!

Thank you!

@@ContentConfessional Update... forget Oppenheimer, too much shite. Stick with suspiciousobservers. 👍👊🐕

@@ContentConfessional blink blink

Have you done that? How did it go?

Frederick Dunn : NO, Need 4 me to do that coz where i live, winter temperature NEVER drop to freezing let alone snow fall.