strange behaviour

[user 6228]

The accepted wisdom is bees beard and fan because the hive is too hot or too crowded
and if the hive is too hot they will fetch water.

I have bearding on a few hives :

they have plenty of room
lot of fanning (you can hear it) but not much evident at the entrance.
not fetching water (maximum of six bees across more than that number of hives).
They are not defensive
They are not preparing to swarm (inspections now show no sign in any of them)


Why?

Are they sitting on a isotherm ? are they making room for internal air flow to ripen honey?

note: these are highly insulated hives whos internals dont experience heating up from being in the sun shine

 

[pargyle]

The accepted wisdom is bees beard and fan because the hive is too hot or too crowded
and if the hive is too hot they will fetch water.

I have bearding on a few hives :

they have plenty of room
lot of fanning (you can hear it) but not much evident at the entrance.
not fetching water (maximum of six bees across more than that number of hives).
They are not defensive
They are not preparing to swarm (inspections now show no sign in any of them)


Why?

Are they sitting on a isotherm ? are they making room for internal air flow to ripen honey?

note: these are highly insulated hives whos internals dont experience heating up from being in the sun shine

Just having a glass of wine, lounging around on the patio and indulging in a bit of female chit chat and bonding ... isn't that what they do ?

 

[Chris Luck]

If they go back in at night when the activity dies down it can only be crowding inhibiting the free movement of bees/stores/air in the hive. Your idea of plenty of room in an active colony might not be the same as the bees.

Chris

 

[user 6228]

If they go back in at night when the activity dies down it can only be crowding inhibiting the free movement of bees/stores/air in the hive. Your idea of plenty of room in an active colony might not be the same as the bees.

Chris

Yes, i thought that one as well, so we added another super on one and additonal brood box on another ... no difference to the bearding


Note: The amount outside would be lost in a super...

 

[Arfermo]

Lack of through ventilation? Holes in crownboard should be open - all year!!!

 

[gregior]

I never worry about bearding at this time of year it's a sign of a nice strong colony imo

Here,s a pic of mine bearding last night:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd....306_834026576614997_7546484279704027895_n.jpg

 

[Heather]

Lack of through ventilation? Holes in crownboard should be open - all year!!!

Don't agree.
OMF allows air flow and extra vent only needed in this hot weather..
Do you keep windows open in winter? They struggle to keep warmth in and you are allowing that heat to escape.

 

[Finman]

Listen to bees

 

[user 6228]

The amount outside is only a very small proportion of the colony in each case. So that points away large scale things affecting the whole hive ~maybe,
We are going into inspect these hives today so maybe we will find something.

Off to build more supers in case adding yet more is the next step.

Listen to bees

Exactly my point... just trying to work out what they are saying
btw we are getting some wasp attacks - the occasional one interferes with inspections and the dead wasps left outside the hive.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Probably not the case for your bees Derek, but I found a pile of very disgruntled drones outside a hive yesterday.

 

[Chris Luck]

Adding space is adding space it doesn't alter congestion that affects hive work.

Chris