# Bee Hive Covers Up? Or down?



## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

Al, 

Do you leave your bee hive covers tilted up for the winter to allow good ventilation and prevent mold or do you put them down to help the bees conserve what little heat they generate? It is getting to be that time of year around here and the temps are starting to drop at night. Up until recently, the temps have been in the 60's -70's during the day and 40 - 50 at night.


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## alleyyooper (Oct 23, 2004)

Been away for a while. The chit hit the fan here starting holloween. My father in law went in the hospital then. He had been fighting colon cancer for 8 years. He had the flu and newmoanya (s/p). He passed on the 3th of Nov and the funeral was the 6th. On the 7th My mom fell and broke her hip. they could not do the operation she needed at the first hospital so they took her to a different one. Her heart rate and bloodpressure kept going whacky for 4 days before it settled down so they could operate.
No sooner get My mom settledin and Kares mom starts having problems.
Her bladder has dropped, she had a galbladder problem so they removed it. She has 2 sist one on the spleen one on the spine, they found a cracked vetabra when they did a MIR to see the sist better.

Any way I put the covers down when the day temps run in the 50F range.
Over that range and I pull the flashing out of the screen bottom boards and tilt the outer covers.

 Al


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## Hoodoo Valley (Nov 14, 2006)

Al, I hope things turn around for you....Very sorry to hear of your situation. Kindest regards and prayers. Chris


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## Panelman55 (Feb 10, 2011)

Hey Live Oak, 

You are asking about bees? My answer to the Question is leave the cover down in the winter. I had a nice hive, that froze to death in the snow this past winter. No fault of mine. The winters are getting colder in this part of the south. I think its "Global Warming". I'll be getting more bees in day or two and I'll let you how it goes.




Panelman55


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## rsmith335 (Jun 2, 2010)

I'm with Panelman55. My uncile is a bee keeper and all of his hive lids are closed in the winter time. How many hives do you have?


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## NBKnight (Dec 5, 2010)

I only have 6 hives for my apple trees.I leave them down.


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## Cublover (Feb 20, 2011)

NBKnight said:


> I only have 6 hives for my apple trees.I leave them down.


Is this thread still alive? I love to talk about bees! 
I worked with a bee keeper that had 400 hives that worked all the blossoms from Florida to Wayne co, NY! Good stories available!

What bees do you have? My mentor had the Italians, because the temperment was good and they worked hard.

PS, covers down, unless it's 100+ degrees.
They need to maintain, I forget the actual temp, but they know. They either use the wings to make heat or move cool air. That hive is a wonderful animal! They/it cannot survive without the cooperation of everyone.
10,000 members, a million. Makes no differance. Each member has a job to do and everyone else NEEDS them to do that job!
We could learn a lot from bees!!


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## Pipertec (Jan 12, 2012)

Yeah, Cub...I like the Italians best too. I haven't fooled with any since my grandfather died, but I loved to help him. He bought a new stand of bees out of Georgia one year....They were called Midnights. Man, I tell you what....there wasn't enough smoke in Alabama to keep those things from eating you up. Only time we could look at them was right before dark. And the first time we robbed them, was the last time...Ol' Granpop decided someone else needed to be robbing those bees. I mean, getting stung a few times was good for his arthritis, but those thing made sure his bones stayed limber....never seen any other strain of bees that aggressive. If the killer's are more aggressive than that...no wonder they kill people. Down here now the Verroa's are taking the out a lot of colonies. One of these days, when I get caught up on all these other hobbies I have I want a couple of hives.......talking about them brings back a lot of memories!!


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## Cublover (Feb 20, 2011)

Pipertec said:


> Yeah, Cub...I like the Italians best too. I haven't fooled with any since my grandfather died, but I loved to help him. He bought a new stand of bees out of Georgia one year....They were called Midnights. Man, I tell you what....there wasn't enough smoke in Alabama to keep those things from eating you up. Only time we could look at them was right before dark. And the first time we robbed them, was the last time...Ol' Granpop decided someone else needed to be robbing those bees. I mean, getting stung a few times was good for his arthritis, but those thing made sure his bones stayed limber....never seen any other strain of bees that aggressive. If the killer's are more aggressive than that...no wonder they kill people. Down here now the Verroa's are taking the out a lot of colonies. One of these days, when I get caught up on all these other hobbies I have I want a couple of hives.......talking about them brings back a lot of memories!!


We showed up at Wolcott NY one April afternoon. with 368 hives overheated from the ride. We went to John Fowler's farm and drove under the pipe where they load the water tanks, to cool the bees.
(Did you ever see the movie,Swarm'? That was ONE of our hives!!)
Now, since we were expected to pollinate, we came over-prepared!
Our hives had a brood chamber, then (2) high bodies with 3 frames of filled, the rest, plus a super had empty frames with drawn comb! These girls were READY!!
As soon as the nets came off, those orchards were COVERED with bees!
We called them with an ETA and said to have all the broadleaf mowed before we get there. (If the bees 'like' the dandylions, that is what they will work)
The locals call them 'Rebel bees'!


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