in the bleak mid spring

Has any one ever tried to warm a hive so bees can move to their food source?

tomtit said:

Has any one ever tried to warm a hive so bees can move to their food source?

Click to expand...

Finman should be along shortly!

Finman does it

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These are best in heating. 7-15W, not more.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/RC-Hagen-PT...9KDS/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1364136436&sr=8-6


[ame]http://www.amazon.de/Trixie-76085-Heizmatte-16-20/dp/B0030823HM/ref=lp_445318031_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1364137140&sr=1-3[/ame]
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How do you get electricity to them out in the fields?

It must be a nightmare if you have a lot of hives.

Chris

Chris Luck said:

How do you get electricity to them out in the fields?

It must be a nightmare if you have a lot of hives.

Chris

Click to expand...

You need not to do that. But if you have possibility..

My hives are in the cottage yard. 20 m cable from house wall.

Miles and miles of wiring and big diesel generators, and a tanker full of diesel.

Finman said:

.
These are best in heating. 7-15W, not more.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/RC-Hagen-PT...9KDS/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1364136436&sr=8-6


http://www.amazon.de/Trixie-76085-H...p_445318031_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1364137140&sr=1-3
.

Click to expand...

So where in the hive do you put it ? heat rises so on the floor I presume

Hivemaker. said:

Miles and miles of wiring and big diesel generators, and a tanker full of diesel.

Click to expand...

Not solar panels then?

Chris

a car battery across this resistor attached to a sheet of ally will give you ~15w.
it will last a little less than the amp hour rating of the battery.

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/panel-mount-fixed-resistors/0157550/

Some of these would provide enough power...............

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r293/VIEWLINER/080216-3.jpg

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I wonder what is so funny.
And why you should use electrict heating if you do not have electrict.

Carry your hives enough close the electrict point. It takes less time than make railway to hives.

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You have me thinking....... there is a power socket in the farmers water pump shed 5 meters from my hive where I plug my strimmer into, Can you get camouflage extension cables

Finman,
Out of interest, do you use one of these heater cables for each hive of bees or, do you run a single heater cable between two or more hives?

Heating Mat

Hi if you look on Amaz0n. type 12 volt petmat 30-35 degrees £25. these may be what your looking for. They are 15watt 44mm x 33mm. Which could run longer if conected to 20 watt or larger solar panel or small wind turbine. I will look at doing this myself next year. I wondered if it would be better to fix under crown board with insulation above, as heat will sink as it cools down but should be less likly to be affected to cold from ground. Or insulate floor the place mat on floor of hive. I have no conection with AMAZ-on You will need a charge controller and load dumper which stops the batteries from over charging

Oandy said:

Hi if you look on Amaz0n. type 12 volt petmat 30-35 degrees £25. these may be what your looking for. They are 15watt 44mm x 33mm. Which could run longer if conected to 20 watt or larger solar panel or small wind turbine. I will look at doing this myself next year. I wondered if it would be better to fix under crown board with insulation above, as heat will sink as it cools down but should be less likly to be affected to cold from ground. Or insulate floor the place mat on floor of hive. I have no conection with AMAZ-on You will need a charge controller and load dumper which stops the batteries from over charging

Click to expand...

A 15W heater will need a much bigger panel than 20W to run at this time of year. In fact It won't even run the panel round the clock in midsummer!

15W @ 12v is more than an amp, I was only just seeing that from a 100W panel in overcast skies a month or so ago, albeit with the panel sat horizontal. Plus you need to size the panels and the storage to account for all the time there is no daylight, or the sun is too low in the sky to contribute, that is around 14 -16 hours a day at the moment. Plus there are days where the panels are producing next to nothing, and days they produce nothing at all because they are covered in snow.

Solar heating a hive by PV is really not going to work unless you chuck a shed load of money at it, similarly a wind turbine is not going to be much use either.

Spend the money on PIR insulation or wind breaks or poly hives instead of technology.

I insulated all my TBH hives with celotex last year. And put in solid floors under the OMF - with a small gap.

Makes a difference Minimal cost.

Heating? Hmm . Greenhouse yes.. hives no.