# Pretty smart, those bees!



## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

In the shade!









Two weeks ago, with daytime temps in the high eighties and low nineties every hive in this yard had enormous beebeards. These three tristory nucs were the worst. Today at well over 100, in full sun….no beards.








Here’s the way I understand it. Beebeards are a collection of foraging bees who have no work to do…end of nectar flow, time of day…whatever. Rather than add their biological heat to the inside of the nest, they stay outside. Makes sense…right? Today with triple digit temps…they have work to do. They are collecting water. Those miniature tankers return to the nest and deposit water droplets throughout the hive. Other bees circulate air and the evaporating water actually cools the nest. Pretty smart those bees.


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## heus (Apr 16, 2012)

They continue to astound me every day.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

heus said:


> They continue to astound me every day.


If I had to guess, I'd say that humans figured out that evaporating water lowered temperatures a few hundred years ago. Bees have been employing that same principle for eons. Makes one wonder, doesn't it?


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## heus (Apr 16, 2012)

I think the ancient Greeks and Romans used this principle but even so, bees were using it long before humans.


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