Bee-Oh-Bee it's HOT Outside!

By: Chari Elam

Bees vs Heat

What’s a bee to do? Living in a house with 45,000-60,000 of your sisters—wing to wing, antenna to antenna—packed in like... well, bees! This can really generate some heat!

Are you seeing this?

Join the club! Most bees (not all) will exhibit this behavior at this time of year. Some areas have very high humidity, making it even more prolific. Regardless, heat is harder on our bees than cold. Therefore, their only recourse is to relieve some pressure. I often wonder how they decide “who” will go out and take their turn hanging out on the front... drawing straws, perhaps? No... seriously, it’s the 10–20-day-old bee (pre-forager stage) that tends to hang out on the front porch to relieve overcrowding as well as fan the hive to help reduce the temperature inside. Have you ever noticed these bees will often “washboard,” as if they are bored? Maybe—just maybe—that’s what wash “bored”ing really is?! Hmm…

Michael Kelling

Past President Central Texas Beekeepers Association

Master Beekeeper

Listen to what these experts have to say about what causes bearding and what you can do about it!

Instead of freaking out like I did when I was a new beekeeper, understand that these bees are performing an important task, and they are very much helping the hive. There are some measures we can take to do our part in helping them during this heat.

Ventilation

• Prop the front of the lid up slightly (resting on the inner cover).

• Place spacers (such as pennies or toothpicks) under all four corners of the outer cover (between the lid and inner cover).

• Use a screen bottom board without the insert.

• Use screen inner covers

• Remove entrance reducers. Use a robbing screen to mitigate robbing opportunities with the entrance fully open. When resources are scarce, robbing will begin!

Shade

Keep bees where they can have some shade in the afternoon. If their location is in full sun, you can either move them to an afternoon shade location or place a canopy over the hives. Providing some shade can go a long way to helping—but this isn’t always feasible. If not, don’t worry about it. Follow the ventilation methods above, and they will be just fine.