Today the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported:
"Atlanta reached 98 degrees today, breaking a 13-year-old record by one degree.
Forecasters expect another hot one Tuesday and again on Wednesday. Summer's here, a bit earlier than usual."
You can see the bees bearding on the landings of their hives in an effort to cool off. The bees maintain a temperature of around 94 degrees in the hive. In Atlanta today where it was 98 degrees, you can imagine that it gets even hotter inside the beehive unless the bees do something about it. What they do is to send some of the bees outside to lower the heat indoors. Once on the porch, some of these bees fan to increase the ventilation. Others do the washboard dance - maybe to forestall the boredom of just hanging out on the porch.
Mellona, below, was creative in its bearding, making an outline of bees around the bottom box.
Persephone had her bees hanging out in the orientation branch. The bearding in all of these hives would be much denser, but for the slatted rack, the screened bottom board, and the stick that I use to prop up the top cover at the back.
As Atlanta set a record of 98 degrees, this blog with this post sets a record of 400 posts so far.
I've kept the blog for two years and 55 days. This averages out to approximately one post every two days. The blog continues to be a great way for me to keep a record of my bee activities and has been a wonderful way for me to make beekeeping contacts around the country and around the world.
"Atlanta reached 98 degrees today, breaking a 13-year-old record by one degree.
Forecasters expect another hot one Tuesday and again on Wednesday. Summer's here, a bit earlier than usual."
You can see the bees bearding on the landings of their hives in an effort to cool off. The bees maintain a temperature of around 94 degrees in the hive. In Atlanta today where it was 98 degrees, you can imagine that it gets even hotter inside the beehive unless the bees do something about it. What they do is to send some of the bees outside to lower the heat indoors. Once on the porch, some of these bees fan to increase the ventilation. Others do the washboard dance - maybe to forestall the boredom of just hanging out on the porch.
Mellona, below, was creative in its bearding, making an outline of bees around the bottom box.
Persephone had her bees hanging out in the orientation branch. The bearding in all of these hives would be much denser, but for the slatted rack, the screened bottom board, and the stick that I use to prop up the top cover at the back.
As Atlanta set a record of 98 degrees, this blog with this post sets a record of 400 posts so far.
I've kept the blog for two years and 55 days. This averages out to approximately one post every two days. The blog continues to be a great way for me to keep a record of my bee activities and has been a wonderful way for me to make beekeeping contacts around the country and around the world.
Huge CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
ReplyDelete400 AND STILL GOING STRONG!
Warren
Really enjoy your blog - congrats on the milestone!
ReplyDeleteRob