Summer Days

The days were pretty hot a few weeks back, and it's going to be in the mid-90's again next week. When I wandered out into the garden on the 100 degree day last week, I saw a whole bunch of the girls just sitting in, around, and in front of the entrance all fanning like mad. When I also saw a candle completely liquified on my picnic table out front, I figured I'd better do something.

First, John built a small structure out of scrapwood over the hive, just to shade it. Then I offset the telescoping cover, and offset the cover itself underneath that, so that there was more air flow.  The telescoping cover keeps the rain off. The funny thing was that I did it bareheaded and barehanded, and I loved seeing all the workers come out through the 'roof' to take a look at the sunlight they weren't used to seeing through the top of the hive. It was just an inquisitive thing, and there was no rise in the buzzing at all and none of the ladies tried to check me out. In fact, ten minutes later, when I went to look at the entrance, a good number of the fanning crew had gone on to other duties.

I'm thinking of just leaving it like that for the summer, maybe checking on whether or not they're gluing things down when I do the usual checks. They seem to be very content on the most part and workers are tumbling out of the hive at a really good rate as soon as it's warm. I've seen them in the cherry trees that are blooming nearby, and their back legs are just stuffed with bright pollen. The girls that are entering the hive have the same color pollen, too! So I suspect it's them, as the trees are just a block away.