Temperature control in beehives

Temperature control in beehives

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
 Beekeeper Lynn Williams has invented a system that kills the dreaded varroa mite in beehives. But he tells a fascinating story about temperature control within the hive itself. Bees will go into what the beekeepers call air conditioning mode. They maintain 94 1/2° in that hive body year-round. It doesn’t matter if it is 20° below zero or 110° outside. They will start moving their wings, their metabolic rate goes up, and then the hive box works like a convection oven. That air is moving around in that box to ensure that all the frames in that box, we maintain 106° which kills 99% of the mites in the box. Here’s what happens when you have a purely natural, organic product like this. You put the bees back in their natural habitat before 1981. The production of bees explodes. I have pictures of the beehives at my farm where I have six honey supers on top. Instead of having a normal hive with 30 or 40,000 bees, I get 60,70, 80 thousand bees in a hive and they're making honey like crazy. My honey production is been a double or triple this year. I’ve actually started pulling honey early and will have to pull it a couple more times before I end the season.
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