07/29/2023
This humidity has been rough! The bee's are out late tonight still working on cooling off their house.
🐝 Did you know that Honeybees have a few strategies for cooling off?
🐝 Some fan the nest,
🐝others leave the hive to increase air flow
🐝 a few leave the house looking for ponds or puddles. These “water collector” bees fill their bellies with water, fly back and then regurgitate the liquid. Other bees slurp it up and spit it out around the hive, allowing the colony to cool as the water evaporates. (I like to think they are having a water 🔫 fight )
🐝 and then we have whats pictured here, bearding! Bearding refers to bees accumulating at the front of the hive, in a beard-like shape, they do this to make room inside the hive for added ventilation on a hot and humid day. With Virginia's feel like temperatures of 104 the last few days, who can blame them?! Both the temperature and humidity within the hive MUST be kept at precise percentage, for both the brood (they require temperatures 32-36C / 90-97F to form properly) and ambient humidity for nectar to be evaporated to honey. They spend 40% of their energy reserves on regulating the temperature in their hive!
