It has been cold at night and waking up to white frost on the surface. I thought I have a little fun with my toy, Fluke Thermal Imager, to see where the majority of the heat is located in a bee hive. Air temperature when these thermal images were taken was 43.3 degrees Fahrenheit.
I was surprised to only read about 50F but then maybe I was too far and should have gotten closer so the thermal sensors would give me a more accurate reading of just a single hive.
Los Altos Honey Bees 
where can a thermal imager be purchased.? what corrective action can be taken when bees are at the top of the hive in December?
Roy, you can google thermal imager and find many options as well as many different brands. I like Fluke test equipment so I stuck with that brand.
I wouldn’t swap hive box locations until end of Feb or early March. Let the bees be where they want to be at during this time of the year. If the weather is warm enough the bees will move honey around.
thanks for the advice. Also, is it ok to be feeding candy boards or raw sugar now/
BTW, where are you located? I don’t want to provide wrong advice as each area varies on bee keeping practices.
Plainwell (SW Mich)
Hey Roy,
Most of my advice are region specific but like anywhere and any advice, use what works for you. It’s best to get advice from someone local especially our climates are so different.
But from my understanding when weather is cold cold, feeding dry sugar is probably better than syrup. Bees will not feed on either when it’s too cold as they won’t leave the cluster. And if you do the dry sugar newspaper method, it has to be right above the brood/cluster area.
Thanks, I will try the newspaper method.