[avalonweddingsbcs]

we're in texas and the temperature is something around 85 and the humidity is around 75-85%.

I drove my car out to the hives to check on them visually and saw that two of the four had a gob of bees outside on the porch and more all over the front.

several hundred if not more than that..


Since it is so humid, are they out taking the night breeze or are they all swarming tomorrow?

it was about midnight when i drove by.

 

[AmericasBeekeeper]

Back before air conditioning, we used to sit on the porch at night. Bees cluster in warm weather and nectar flows to control the temperature and humidity of the hive. All that moisture from the nectar has to be removed. To test the idea, put a flat black metal cover on your hive and watch them come out real quick.

 

[NasalSponge]

It is called bearding...do a search for many threads. And while we are at it as soon as the flows slow down the bees will begin to dance on the front of the hive and landing board as if they are in a chorus line, this is called washboarding....do a search to find many threads.

 

[Tom Fran]

We have a heat index here in SC of about 100 degrees at present. Here's a picture of the "night life" in my hive.

 

[HEATHERnRye]

We woke up this morning to find our established hive looking like the one above, where as the new hive that we just shook out a month ago wasn't bearded up at all.

 

[Tom Fran]

The hotter and more humid it gets here, the more the bees come out on the deck of there home.

 

[HEATHERnRye]

Just bees being bees.

 

[bigbore]

more bees in the hive means bigger beards on the hives...

 

[Tom Fran]

more bees in the hive means bigger beards on the hives...

Does that mean that you have a strong and healthy hive!

 

[HEATHERnRye]

Beard from last week... it's almost twice this size now at night.