In this October Beekeeping Today Podcast Short, Dr. Dewey Caron returns from Apimondia in Copenhagen and the Washington State Beekeepers Association Conference with another Audio Postcard—this time exploring the long-debated topic of condensing versus ventilated hives.

Dewey discusses three levels of communication central to his monthly series: bee scientist to beekeeper, beekeeper to bee, and bee to bee. Drawing on the work of Dr. Tom Seeley and Derek Mitchell of the University of Leeds, he examines how wild colonies regulate temperature and moisture in tree cavities compared to modern Langstroth hives.

Listeners will hear Dewey explain the difference between a condensing hive—which retains heat and manages moisture through top insulation—and a ventilated hive, which uses airflow and upper vents to remove humidity. He walks through the pros and cons of each, including the energy cost to bees, honey consumption, and overwintering success.

The episode concludes with fascinating insights into heater bees, as first described by Jürgen Tautz, showing how worker bees actively warm brood cells during cold months. Dewey ties it all together with his signature reminder: there’s no single right way to keep bees—only the approach that works best for you and your colonies.

Links and references mentioned in this episode:

Hesbach, W. (2020). The Condensing Colony. American Bee Journal, 160(2), 170–180.
Seeley, T. D. (2019). The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild. Princeton University Press.
Radcliffe, R. W. & Seeley, T. D. (2022). Thinking Outside the Box: Temperature Dynamics in a Tree Cavity, Wooden Box, and Langstroth Hives With or Without Insulation. American Bee Journal, 162(8), 893–898.
Mitchell, D. (2016). Ratios of Colony Mass to Thermal Conductance of Tree and Man-Made Nest Enclosures of Apis mellifera: Implications for Survival, Clustering, Humidity Regulation, and Varroa destructor. International Journal of Biometeorology, 60(5), 629–638. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-015-1057-z
Mitchell, D. (2017). Honey Bee Engineering: Top Ventilation and Top Entrances. American Bee Journal, 157(8), 887–889. ISSN 0002-7626.
Mitchell, D. (2023). Honeybee Cluster—Not Insulation but Stressful Heat Sink. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 20:20230488. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2023.0488
Tautz, J. (2008). The Buzz About Bees: Biology of a Superorganism. Springer.

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[Bonus] Short - Dewey Caron: Condensing Versus Ventilating Hives

Beekeeping Today Podcast