Summertime is an exciting season but also very challenging for all the beekeepers. For the bees, summer is a busy time as well. As all things bloom in the summer, the nectar is reaching its peak. When that happens, bees are working tirelessly to collect pollen and gather the nectar, followed by an intensive honey production.
As the temperatures grow higher and higher, the extreme heat can negatively impact bees’ health. Increasing global temperatures will continue to impact the environment. Just as it is very uncomfortable for us to handle the heat waves and we need lots of water and shade, the same happens to bees. Nevertheless, bees are able to take care of themselves and control the temperature inside the hive, by cooling it down with their wing flapping technique.
At Apiary Book we consider beekeepers as the first line of defense in the mission to protect our planet’s bees. Our objective is to provide the best solutions to minimize bee colonies losses and maximize productivity, but also, we want to come to beekeepers’ aid with practical advice. Even though bees are self-reliant, it is our responsibility to provide them with the best support when it comes to environmental conditions.
Down below, we will dive deeper into how can bees handle the hot temperatures and how Apiary Book app can efficiently help your beekeeping journey during summer.
Flapping their wings
The temperature inside a hive is kept at about 95 degrees thanks to the bees natural instinct to control it. Their ability to independently take care of their hive is attributed to some techniques that prove once again how restless and hardworking they are.
Usually honey bees rely on seasonal patterns, and their techniques to stay cool differ from season to season. For example, during winter, the bees gather together in the hive and they make sure to secure any cracks with propolis. The temperature inside the hive is kept at 95 degree Fahrenheit / 35 Celsius, by flapping their wings.
When summer arrives and the temperatures outside begin to rise up, bees purpose is to keep the climate inside the hive at the same 95° degree F/ 35° C. Just like we place the air conditioning inside our house to keep us cool, worker bees duty is to create air circulation into the entrance of the hive. In this way, the temperature inside the hive will start to adjust.
Collecting water
As temperatures surpass the normal threshold, the bees will begin to rely on another technique to keep their hive cool. Water evaporation is the next To-Do job on bees list. It is well known that when water evaporates it has a cooling effect. Worker bees are aware of this fact and they fly away to collect water droplets which they blow over the hot areas of the hive, to cool it off. This process will expand the evaporation rate and will preserve the air circulation.
Rely on Apiary Book app for defining your important activities
As we’ve already emphasized above, summertime is a busy season for beekeeping activities. The beekeeper needs to take into consideration a lot of practices in order to maintain the hives healthy and flourishing.
To keep everything well organized and simplify the job, you can rely on an important ally that can help you manage all of the responsibilities – Apiary Book app.
By downloading Apiary Book app, you get to enjoy innovative features that will allow you to perform your actions more efficiently. By connecting the digital world with your apiaries, you will be able to make better decisions.
Apiary Book allows recording on mobile phone the information on the number, health and maintenance of each bees family, treatments carried out, and other operations in the field of beekeeping. A beekeeper can define several apiaries (hearths), can add work to be performed, harvests (honey, wax), colonies movements, veterinary controls and others.
Once you have your hand on the app, you can easily define important activities that need to be done or have been made in the apiary. Every season comes fully packed with different activities that are specifically used for the hives.
The summer season implies a lot of attention from the beekeepers. Thus, daily activities can be organized in a To Do list, an integrated feature of the app. When you think about the hives details, there are so many aspects to keep an eye on. But don’t worry! The Apiary Book features allow you to add the bee family info, queen history, hive components and inspections. Keeping track of colonies movement, your beehives reports or harvests are also important features that you can enjoy.
Part of being a good beekeeper is to stay comitted to your hives by practicing all the neccesary methods in order to boost productivity. You can count on Apiary Book app every season for managing all the practices that need to be done.
Stay tuned for our next blog post related to this season’s practices. If you found this article interesting, please share it on social media and you are always welcome to comment below.
Happy beekeeping!