I have an empty 20lt pail (I know, I saw big)… and feeding syrup.
Having said that, I just been down to the hives to check whether they are bearding after I visited you Terry, and I could clearly smell honey from about 2m away. Not same smell as honey you buy from shops, but somewhat richer. Maybe the mixture of honey and nectar… and bee sweat?
Can humans smell bee pheromones?
I assume, this is a good smell to have, right, and indicates there is a flow. It’s not honey leaking from comb because it got damaged with the extreme heat?
By the way, 41°C today, no bearding observed, but lots of activity on both hives. Sunday I’ll crack’em open and have a gander.
Yes. Many of them are substances found in essential oils, so they smell quite familiar. Pheromone from the Nasonov gland smells like lemongrass. Alarm pheromones smell like ripe bananas. Brood pheromone has a very particular (pleasant) smell to me. There are many other bee pheromones which have identifiable smells, but may be in too low concentration to identify.
Take care with a white torch light around a hive at night, the bees will go into a defensive mode and fly to the light source, your hand. A red light beam is much safer as the bees can’t see that spectrum.
Hi Stefan, I have a theory about bees not bearding during the day, however bearding during a hot night.
During the day, bees collect water to be used during the air conditioning process. Lots of bees circulate air throughout the hive, evaporating the water in order to maintain the optimum hive temp.
During a hot night, bees can’t collect water, therefore they are unable to do evaporative air conditioning. Bees still have to move air around inside the hive, and possibly more so in order to maintain the optimum hive temp. That would mean, any bees that impede the air flow would need to come outside.
It also could be possible that the bees outside are helping to cool the air before it gets drawn into the hive. Bees are able to move air forwards as well as backwards. The bees outside could be moving air backwards towards the entrance. I can see this being beneficial, especially with no wind around.
I agree with your thinking about bearding on hot nights as I only see it after sun set, I guess it is also because all of the bees are home for the night to so that would also contribute to the heat in the hive just by the numbers of bees.
Cheers
I am an absolute idiot. Thank you for reminding me that Pete. I knew that, and should have known better. I deserved to be stung yesterday - that will teach me a lesson. Well it’s all Freddy’s fault really… ha!
You are a melittologist…it does make sense MrJ.H. However I am pretty sure I saw bearding in daylight too in other hives. Last night I didn’t notice any fanning by the bees outside. They were just standing there.
I have another question. If they are cooling the hive at night - do they sleep? Will that affect their performance on the next day if they are tired from their night shift?
To be honest with you guys, for me, stuff the honey, these are the things that really find interesting.
Thank you Stefan
Bees work day & night, however they do sleep. This can be risky for bees, (my guess) because if they sleep too long, they run the risk of getting carted away, far enough so they can’t make it back to the hive.
Take several looks at the video on youtube, “City of Bees”. That video beautifully shows how bees air condition their hives. It also shows older bees getting carted away It’s a ruthless society.
Once we fully understand the concept of how bees air condition their hives, then it’s easy to see how I came up with my theories.
Good luck with the inspection tomorrow. Start early so that don’t get scorched. It was warm out there this morning when I started at 8am. Learn from my ‘stuff ups’ and make good use of your 2 colonies!
Hi Stefan, in reply to your statement “I find the flow hive roof cute, but not practical. Can’t put anything on it.”
You inspired me to modify mine. I also put some insulation under the roof. Just off-cuts that were given to me a while back, even the lino. Also the lino will make scraping burr comb much easier. Plus it wont be affected by moisture. Any excess moisture will drip onto the hive mat. Just a couple of photos showing the insulation & lino, plus the finished roof next to the few leftover off-cuts.
Is that the 1962 doc by the Moody Institute of Science? I just saw that, but will watch it again. Cheers.
A mere peasant… inspiring a melittologist. I am flattered Mr.J.H.
I don’t know yet how my cork blocks insulation will perform, but I suspect moisture would be a bit easier to manage here in the desert, then over there where it is much more humid. If I find they build comb on it, I’ll just use a hive mat.
Your inside decorations of that roof, are very boudoir… watch out for that colony Mr.J.H, I think it will go ballistic… it will certainly get them in the mooood.
Yes, that is the 1962 doc by the Moody Institute of Science. I recommend it to every new beekeeper. Whether they watch it or not is up to them.
The part that really made me go WOW was when I realized what they were saying in relation to a bee that witnesses a bee dance. If that bee decides to go on a journey seeking the same honey the dancing bee advertises, she only takes enough fuel to do a one way trip. To take more fuel would be inefficient, thus deplete the hive of valuable honey.
The posh ceiling in the roof is just stuff that was given to me to use as hive mats. I’m sure something similar would be ideal siliconed to the cork tiles, just in case the bees do build comb onto it. I’m confident the comb will be easier to remove off the vinyl.
… and feeding those ‘lost’ or tired bees some syrup will get them flying again. Isn’t that amazing?
I do find a few bees walking helplessly around, and always wondered what they were up to. I never knew, they probably just ran out of fuel.
I know you guys use it all the time, but my only concern with vinyl is the amount of VOC’s it releases. I read an article sometime ago about, and stayed with me.
I’ve used vinyl for hive mats for over 30 years. I don’t know if it has done any harm. The only thing is having vinyl as a ceiling doubles up on vinyl for the hive that roof is on. I’m not going to let it worry me.
A glass ceiling would be good. Silicone would hold it up there, plus hold it together, should it break, plus add some weight. Don’t tell me what silicone releases I DON’T want to know.
