It's been quite the heat wave over all of North America. The Weather Network channel shows a map of our country all lit up in red and yellow... the hot colours.
And for good reason. Our temperatures have remained in the mid 30's.
This wouldn't bee so bad except for the humidex which made the temperature feel more like 40 degrees Celsius.
And the bees, were hot too. They were bearding all over the outside of the hive trying to stay cool.They were even hanging in a cluster that looked like a swarm cluster, but it wasn't.
I worried about how the bees pile up on each other when outside the hive. To me it looked the the beginning of a swarm cluster.
If they were hot why would they pile up onto each other like that? An experienced beekeeper pointed that it's not the bees that are hot, it's the inside of the hive. That's why they came out.
Here's some video of bees ventilating the hive when I took the cover off.
Here's some video of bees ventilating the hive when I took the cover off.
You can actually see the oscillation of their wings in different directions.
3 comments:
Wow! This is soooo cool to watch. I love it. Do you mind if I link my facebook page to this post? I've not seen my bees doing this on the inside like yours but they were sure busy doing it on the outside yesterday. Yes, definitely hot!
Hi Michelle. Certainly you can link from your facebook. They started fanning when I took the lid off, probably because all the inside heat was rising.
Thank you! I'll link to it today so that others can see the wonderment of this.
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