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London Broil

Remember the film, "Good Morning Vietnam" with the late, and great, comedian Robin Williams? One of my favorite lines from the film was when Williams replied to the liason who greeted him at the airfield, "Warm? No. This is a setting for London Broil!" Well, I got thousands of little six-legged Robin Williams' running around the hives saying just about the same thing.

The past few days have been in the low 90's and today was especially humid. When the dog days of summer turn up, bees go on vacation. Not a "real" vacation, there is still work to be done, but rather an extended siesta if you will. Most of the bees are just trying to cool down the hive, so they stop building and beging fanning (or collecting small buckets of crushed ice). Some just hang out on the porch and others hang out on the walls of the hive (inside and ouside). This is the problem I currently have.

Another round of Mojitos please!
© 2015 Jason Hotham



It is infact so hot, that some of the larvae and pupae are dying. That was the situation that I observed yesterday. The nurse bees were clearing out the cells that contained the larvae that died due to the extreme heat. Phew! I thought I had a problem there with mites or disease, but turns out, it is a normal occurance in the summer.

As I mentioned above, bees will not build when it is too hot. Not ideal for me, because I would like the bees to draw out more comb. Don't they know I will go on vacation in four weeks? I want to be able to get them nice and fed, and perhaps a few formic acid treatments against the mites in before I take off. Well, guess I'll just have to hope that the weather cools down sigificantly so that the lil' ladies will stop sipping Mojitos on the front porch and get back to work!




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