But when it comes to the summer months of high temperatures and humidity and you don’t use air conditioning in your home, you are tougher.
Bob
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I see this site is indeed a knowlidge treasury.
I done quite some research in the last few days. I have a rough idea of what l want to go for.
The flow hive seems like a amazeing idea, but upon some thinking and reading l have many concerns. I think its too invasive, and costy.
I found a guy doeing biodinamic beekeeping. Now that seems nice. Might pay him a visit. Basicly the bees are ofcorse inspected and medicated with some natural acids and thime oil, but otherwise they are more or less let to do their job on their own. They build their own comb.
Honey is not my priority. Its just a bonus. I always loved bees, but we never coud have them becouse l had a life thretning bee alergy. I think l overgrown it, if not, its time to train the body to do so.
Are the hives insulated for the winter?
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I guess that I have been mislead.
"The other reason, perhaps, is the number of commercial beekeepers
who, during the winter, have moved their operations from other states to
Florida because the mild winters are easier on bee colonies.
“We are the bee nursery for the eastern half of the United
States,” Nolan said. “Commercial beekeepers from 27 states bring their
bees here for the winter. They can’t rebuild their colonies up north so
they come to Florida,"
http://www.tbo.com/news/floridas-managed-bee-colonies-bucking-the-national-trend-20150607/
I think there’s a decent business in moving bees to where they are needed for pollination.
Another factor is multiplication of starter colonies, you need warm weather and nectar flow to be able to practically do that, then enough time left in the season that the colony can grow to produce and survive a winter balling up. Varoa mites and other issues, possibly pesticides and BT genetically modified crops are impeding that old pracrice now. Starter colonies generally come from New Zealand or Hawaii.
In fact, bees raised in the north seem to be more productive. The long hibernation requires less food, and the nectar flow is unparalleled in the intensive short growing season of the north.
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The moving of bees is an interesting topic all of its own. I was reading recently that most of the large bee keepers move their hives to California for olive session because there are so many trees to pollinate in such a short time. The article I read talked about this newer practice of using the same bees across the entire country is not only stressful on the bees but also greatly increases the chance of massive hive failure do to local disease issues in any part of the country the article was talking about pesticide exposure but pointed out the risk in general of getting all the bees in one place. They pointed out a big part of why this is done is that modern farming is much more mono culture and people don’t want to keep enough variety to actually support the bees through the entire season.
The one thing I know about keeping bees is bears really like honey and will become very friendly with your hive much to your dismay.
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Multi strand, high power electric fencing is the only practical safeguard. 
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Or nuts ! ! ! 
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Hey Kristijan, my son Luke (16), is the president of the bee keeping association here. He’d like to talk to you I 'd bet. I’ll let him know.
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We’re about to start needing that thing down here. It’s snowing again in Alabama
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Those two are not mutually exclusive. 
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Not possible to get TOO hot Bill. Just a little warm over 105.F
Yeah, Wayne, I have to agree. They are in fact tough nuts. It’s cold on this side of the hill.
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Anything over 85 F you guys down there can keep. One good thing about the cold a wood stove and wool sweater will warm it back up. I can only take off so much and then it is still hot. At about 100F the world starts to fade to white there isn’t much time to get to shade and some sort if cool before I pass out. Done that a few times in my life. Me and the heat don’t get along too well. Cold is much better.
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Yeah, I’ve done that a few times too, but not until 110f.
As an edit to my answer to Bill,
In my experience, There are actually four situations in which I would say it is “too hot” :
- pipeline welding in a trench with no air movement over 100F and 95% humidity,
- 105F-110F on a dark metal roof,
- Ft Benning, GA in August----hours at attention in full sun and full battle gear.
- Sometimes, when getting ready for a fall crop, long after the horses are done for when even the mules can’t plow anymore.
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Billy, it got up to 85 last Summer and we had to go for a drive just so we could have some AC. We drove down to Lake Superior and it was 91 F in town.
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I “TRY” to look on what it could be and just laugh it off and carry on. Around here the cold isn’t so bad IF the wind isn’t blowing also. The heat generally isn’t so bad IF you aren’t packing into a fire knowing you have 6 waters and the younger guys have none. LOL
Perfect example was yesterday. It was nice and warm with the sun blinding me something bad and while coming out of an un-used fall pasture, following the road mind you, I managed to drive up onto a drift and KA-FRIGGIN’-BOOM, the entire front half of the truck breaks through and I’m up well above the wheel wells in snow. I could literally reach out the window and touch the snow! Thankfully I wasn’t wearing my insulated bibs or I might not of been able to make it out that window, LOL.
I walked pretty close to 2 miles back to the shop to grab the tractor, laughing at myself the whole way, pull the truck out, drive the truck up onto the county road, take the tractor back to the shop and walk back and retrieve my pickup.
On the bright side…It was a beautiful day and warm enough that I was only wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, although I did learn that Muck boots aren’t for hiking. LOL
The way I see it is if no ones getting hurt and equipment isn’t getting wrecked then you just have to know how to laugh at things, and mainly yourself.
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This one was new to me. A neat build. I envy the operator. He´s got a lot of fun ahead.
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Looks like his wood chunks may be a little too big for his system? And it looks like his char bed may not be built up yet? Almost looks like a first or second firing. I wonder if he has timing advance?
Nice looking build for sure, good attention to detail.
The flu is no joke - that’s why I get the vaccination, even if it spares me one bout every 2 - 3 years, I am glad for the jab in the arm.
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I agree, the wood looks at least 4-5 times bigger than mine and I´m sure this is one of his first times firing up. That´s what i meant by “a lot of fun ahead”. I recognize some of my own initial behaviour - waiting, waiting - for no reason at all 
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Coldest night of the year and twins born !! Wind chill was about 0 F . I was about to freeze and I know the wet calves were just as cold and icing up.
I was able to get the calves to the barn but in all the confusion the cow went back to where the calves were born so I had to play moma and lick them dry ( just kidding , I had to use towels ) .
Sometime during the night the cow came to the barn and got one of the calves and took it with her back to the woods.
Twin calves can be a pain. If the cow has one of the calves with her she forgets about the other. I will have to keep them in a pen for a while
It has been about 30 years sense I had twins .
Sorry about the short video . I thought I was making a picture .
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