One of my hives has begun bearding very heavily in humid weather. It's not the heat, as they say; it's the humidity. Right now it's about 65?, but humidity is 97, and they're clustering outside the entrance. They didn't do this in August when it was in the 90s.
There's plenty of empty room in the hive, and I've opened up the brood chamber to allow better air flow.
I did a mite count and it's high-- 4 per 100-- but not extreme.
Now what? Suggestions?
Something is going on, my impression was honeybees like humidity. Bearding at 65 degrees with ample space in the hive seems unusual, rather odd. What are your other hives doing?
Blessings
Mr. Phill, what is the hive weight, just lift one end of the hive and determine if there is weight which equates to food stores. more specifically is there ample honey in the hive.
I have seen robbed out hives beard, As if the bees just gave up and were waiting to die. When food was provided the bees immediately went inside the hive and all was normal.
I have had a lot of bearding lately with my bees but we have finally had warm weather after a cool rainy summer. The only hive of mine that isn't bearding is one that is weak and light. I just gave that one a frame of bees and brood from another very strong hive over the weekend. I am not sure what their problem was but they were quite nasty. I got stung more times from one hive on Sunday than I have all summer. It was the strong hive that was so nasty. I am not sure if it was because they had so much honey they were protecting or because it was such a strong hive with so many bees. Regardless I don't really want to go through that again. It wasn't fun.
Van, the other hives are acting normal: no bearding except when it's hot. This particular hive is very heavy; plenty of honey stored. In fact I was wondering whether there's too much stored in the brood chamber. (After the harvest I left one super, which they've barely filled out with comb.)
I've been seeing more bearding this week compared to last week. The temp and humidity dropped last week.