How many bees you reckon?

[D Semple]

Hive # 1


Keep in mind the bees that you can see of this colony are protruding below 2"x12" floor joists and extend back from the outside wall about 6' horizontally.



Hive # 2 ( 8 + years old)



And to think last winter I ordered 3 packages

Up to my arse in bee jobs regards

Don

[jhs494]

Nice! Great thermal pictures. Good luck with the removals.
Keep us posted.

Joe

[hilreal]

Don, what do you use to take the thermal pictures?

[D Semple]

It's an older model Fluke Flex Cam Infrared camera that I use for my work as a commercial roofing contractor. I bought it used.

DON'T buy one, a stethoscope, or using the palm of your hand (like JP) to detect heat will show you their location just as well.

And, the cotton pickin thing lies all the time I've found, invarably colonies are 2 to 3 times larger than the camera shows, because the bees don't cluster tight enough to give off heat except right around the brood.

Don

[JP]

The heat gun and infrared show basically the same thing. The thermal imager gives a vague thermal visual while the heat gun shows temperature differentials.

I have an upcoming job where the hive is in the floor. My heat gun showed temp differentials out to 4' or so. My customer's expensive thermal imager showed a glowing blob that ended right where the temps of my gun dropped off.

Heat guns/imagers only record heat. They will show you a bare minimum of what to expect but in a lot of cases that is the extent of the hive/comb sections unless that void space has a good bit of history/the bees swarmed out and are rebuilding.


...JP