Bearding in the rain?

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Joined
May 2, 2018
Messages
651
Reaction score
640
Location
Nr Maidstone, Kent, UK
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
4
We've had 25-26 °C hot, sunny weather the last few days, so I haven't been surprised to see a beard of bees from one of my hives sitting out on the landing board constantly. They're on double brood, and currently have four supers on, so I'm pretty sure space isn't an issue. As I'm waiting for them to re-queen after an AS (she would have emerged a week ago), I've avoided inspecting them other than peeking in the top of the supers to check if they need another added. Also, there are no thymol based, or any other varroa treatments in the hive that they might be trying to avoid.

I just put it down to plenty of honey in the supers in need of ripening off.

Today it's been bucketing down all day long. Bees were still bearding in a fairly large clump this morning when the rain started, but I thought they'd go in as the rain persisted. However, they're still there, and getting soaked.

I always assume the bees know better than me what they're doing ;) , but just wanted to ask if this was normal.
 

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Two of mine have been doing the same. I put a thin piece of wood board on the roof that sticks out enough to keep the rain off them. One hive needs more room which it will get later but the other has loads.
 
Two of mine have been doing the same. I put a thin piece of wood board on the roof that sticks out enough to keep the rain off them. One hive needs more room which it will get later but the other has loads.
My long hive has an overhang at the end where the UFE goes in, mine are using that to keep dry!
IMG_07.jpg
 
I did consider adding some kind of canopy, but as the hive is currently two deep brood boxes and four shallow supers high I didn't think putting anything on top of the roof would help much so far away from the entrance. I'll have to make up some kind of porch out of correx that I can just pin over the entrance if they do it again.
On thinking about it, the bees were so densely blocking the whole entrance, I wonder whether it was less a case of bees making space for honey ripening, and more trying to keep the very humid air out of the hive? Who knows, but they surely know better than me.
 

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