It’s 11:00 p.m. Do you know where your bees are?

Apparently, mine are all hanging outside the hive.

BeeCam Shot at 11:00pm

I always just assumed that all the bees went inside the hive at night leaving just a few guard bees at the entrance. Since the temps here are hitting 100+ each day, my best guess is the hive is still too warm for all the girls in the evening. Maybe I need to set the alarm for 3:00 a.m. to see if they are still outside, or if they all finally go inside.

3 Comments

Filed under beekeeping

3 responses to “It’s 11:00 p.m. Do you know where your bees are?

  1. Brenna

    So, um, thanks to insomnia, Matt and I can confirm that they stay outside until after 4AM (and that the beecam 5000 stays charged at least until then). They were about the same at 1:30 AM as in this photo. By 4AM, they had thinned out some, but there were still a bunch. At 7AM, it was all clear.

  2. Bee Cam Matt

    I found this about night time Bee behavior in hot climates.

    ” Most beekeepers move colonies at night when the bees are all inside the hive. But when daytime temperatures exceed 43.3°C (110°F) in the Southwest, bees stay inside the hive and are more easily moved at midday than at night when they tend to cluster at the entrance. ”

    From
    http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/bkcd/startkeeping/regions.html

  3. I am thinking it may be a temperature/ventilation issue. I ordered a screened inner cover to improve the airflow in the hive.

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