Bearding ok but wow!

[FlexMedia.tv]

Hey folks,
I have 2 brood boxes with the second one starting to fill, last week I added a super. I have a reduced entrance. My bees have been bearding for 2 weeks. Everybody keeps telling me it?s hot and they are just cooling off but every day there just keeps being more. I was worried about swarming and I checked and it doesn?t look like they are willing ( no backfilling, queen cells, full frames, etc.)

I?ll try to send a pic but how long will these rascals do this? As long as it?s hot? That?s the rest of the season here. I?ve never had a hive do this that.

Art


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[iddee]

That's hardly bearding at all.
This is light bearding. Wait until they start heavy bearding. Don't worry about it. It's just a sign of a healthy hive. I enjoy seeing it on my hives.

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[FlexMedia.tv]

Don't worry about it. It's just a sign of a healthy hive. I enjoy seeing it on my hives.

Ok! I?ll believe ya once again. Just looks weird!
Ok. I won?t worry about it.

Art

[BeeMaster2]

Flex,
Do you have insulation in the top cover. If not, try adding foil sided 1/2? insulation. I am trying out the triple foil insulation that comes in rolls. It is ease to staple to the inside and so far seems to hold up better to bees and ants damaging it. You might try using it.
Jim Altmiller

[billdean]

That's hardly bearding at all.
This is light bearding. Wait until they start heavy bearding. Don't worry about it. It's just a sign of a healthy hive. I enjoy seeing it on my hives.

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idea??..you ain't feeding that moldy old syrup are you?

[billdean]

Flex??.I find my bees will congregate like that waiting for a break in the weather to go forage. Especially the way the weather has been lately.  They haven't really started bearding much yet. What Jim said about the insulation. I use 1 1/2" or 2" year around.

[iddee]

Bill, the syrup gets changed regularly, but I seldom clean out the mold on the jars. Never known it to bother them. After all, they gather juice from moldy fruit under the trees.

[cao]

I figured I'd show a couple of my hives.[attachment=0][/attachment][attachment=1][/attachment]

[FlexMedia.tv]

Flex,
Do you have insulation in the top cover. If not, try adding foil sided 1/2? insulation. I am trying out the triple foil insulation that comes in rolls. It is ease to staple to the inside and so far seems to hold up better to bees and ants damaging it. You might try using it.
Jim Altmiller

It?s an old Mountain garden hive with the copper top. It?s double wood but I don?t know if it?s insulated. I use styrofoam in the winter. Nothing in the summer?

[Oldbeavo]

Hot weather and needing another super!
Now that's a beard.

[FlexMedia.tv]

Flex??.I find my bees will congregate like that waiting for a break in the weather to go forage. Especially the way the weather has been lately.  They haven't really started bearding much yet. What Jim said about the insulation. I use 1 1/2" or 2" year around.

Something else I didn?t know I was supposed to use. Darn!

[FlexMedia.tv]

Hot weather and needing another super!
Now that's a beard.

That?s impressive!

[FlexMedia.tv]

I figured I'd show a couple of my hives.[attachment=0][/attachment][attachment=1][/attachment]

I guess mine is nothing!

[Bob Wilson]

But what are all these bearding bees doing? Nothing. Not working. No honey, no brood. Isn't this wasted time a loss for their hive (and us)?

[The15thMember]

But what are all these bearding bees doing? Nothing. Not working. No honey, no brood. Isn't this wasted time a loss for their hive (and us)?

At least in my experience, bees tend to beard mostly in the late evening. It?s getting too dark to go back out and forage, and the house bees are having to work harder to keep the hive cool with all the field bees coming home, so the field bees go and sit outside instead of inside where it?s hot.  The field bees wouldn?t be doing much of anything at this time of day anyway, they?re just doing nothing outside as opposed to inside. 

[Nock]

I?ve yet to see mine do that.

[Ben Framed]

But what are all these bearding bees doing? Nothing. Not working. No honey, no brood. Isn't this wasted time a loss for their hive (and us)?

At least in my experience, bees tend to beard mostly in the late evening. It?s getting too dark to go back out and forage, and the house bees are having to work harder to keep the hive cool with all the field bees coming home, so the field bees go and sit outside instead of inside where it?s hot.  The field bees wouldn?t be doing much of anything at this time of day anyway, they?re just doing nothing outside as opposed to inside.

I don?t know but I tend to agree with you 15th. Bees 🐝 do put off a certain amount of heat?  There has been discussion here on at least two topics about the inside temperatures of hives and honey breakdown, Jim even mentioned melting wax.  I am thinking they beard on the hot clear days to help keep the heat down inside the hives? Not all bees fly, ie nurse bees. Correct? At least until they learn to fly and transmission into worker bees? This could be figured in to what you and others have stated which all the above may tend to add to the situation of bearding? Actually bearding is something that has not really concerned me and I have not studied as a result. So I am listening and learning now.
Phillip

@oldbeavo
Not that is bearding!

[saltybluegrass]

The ones on the landing board get the cream.
The ones on the side get the rotary [attachment=0][/attachment]

[BeeMaster2]

Yesterday morning Judy and I were drinking our morning brew on the patio and noticed the observation hive bees were working really hard. From a distance we could see a lot of pollen coming in. I went out side to get a closer look and every bee returning had pollen in her baskets. Later I looked at the landing board. They were still only bringing in pollen but now they were landing but not going inside.  Every bee hanging on the entrance was packed with pollen   Apparently the nurse bees decide they had enough pollen.
Remember it is the nurse bees that control what and how much goes into the hive.
Another factor is what the scout bees are finding in the field. If the nectar shuts down or it is too hot to fly, the scouts are not telling the other bees where to get food and they are waiting to bee told. If it is hot inside the nurse bees run them out.
A third factor recently documented is that some bees are in standby mode. They just hang around the hive and do not forage. They are like the ready reserved. If something happens to a large number of field bees, they go to work. I often find large numbers of bees clustered in open spaces in hives I am doing cutouts on. Again, if it is too hot inside, the nurse bees send them outside.
Jim Altmiller

[Oldbeavo]

The bearding photo was taken at about 8pm on a summer evening. Honey gathering was over for the day.
These hives were in shade during the day but the daytime temp was probably 95+.
These beards will still be there, if not as big in the early morning, if the night is warm.
You can get summer days hot enough for the wax to melt and the hive collapse.
Like Jim we use insulated lids and paint the tops white, lid vents and floor vents, so far no melt downs. This summer the best temp was 116 F.