Bees fanning

[Mikey N.C.]

I seen bearding and fanning,  if it's for moisture reduction if a afternoon thunderstorm comes really quick and bees are bearded heavy. Sometimes bees slowly move into box , not always. My question is.  If these soaking wet bees enter hive don't they put moisture right back in hive. Just a stupid thing I thought about.

[riverbee]

mikey, there is nothing 'stupid' when it comes to bees, and i appreciate your questions and posts. many things puzzle me as well and don't think to ask.

bees 'heat' and 'cool' the hive, they can reduce the moisture. they can heat and cool a hive.  it's amazing. i see reduction of moisture mostly when the nectar is coming in, and nectar turns to honey. bees can regulate temp and moisture.

we can get very humid in wisconsin.  lately it's been an incredible up/down in temps, rain, and humidity. temps reaching 104 d f, with high humidity, rain and torrential rains, and then some days temps barely top average temp for us.  it's been raining here for days. i see the bees bearding, fanning, and during rains, not so many out the front of the hive.

to answer your question, if bees are caught in the field in a thunderstorm, some may make it back, some may not. when bees get wet, they can't fly.
on the landing board, in a downpour, wet bees entering a hive and adding moisture? to be honest i can't answer that question, don't know if anyone can, but i wouldn't think they would add extra moisture to the hive. it is when they are confined that moisture is added to the hive.

maybe keith (apisbees) has a better answer for you than i do..........thanks for asking mikey!

[apisbees]

Thanks for the introduction RiverBee
Bees regulate both temperature and humidity in the hive and will keep different parts of the hive at different temps and humidity.
First the brood nest is kept at about 95 deg F and the bees keep the brood nest humidity between 50% and 60% This is so the brood does not dry out and die or keeps spores from growing and Chalk brood can develop if the humidity can not be controlled. Colonies at times need large populations to control the heat and moisture in the hive. other times more bees in the hive can interfere with the bees ability to move, add or remove heat and moisture from the hive. During these times the bees will beard on the front of the hive rather than enter the hive and be in the way of the house bees moving the air for heating, cooling, removing or adding humidity. If it gets cooler during the night more bees will enter the hive to add insulation and provide more heat. So bearding in the evening is a condition of the field force bees not being needed in maintaining the ideal conditions in the hive, so they hang out side and stay out of the way.
With the storage and ripening of nectar humidity and temperature also is important. The equalization between % of moisture in honey and the relative humidity in the hive.
Honey with a moisture content of 17% will neither absorb of shed moisture when the relative humidity is at 55%. so the bees want to drop the moisture in wet honey by lowering the moisture in the air, This is done by heating the air, as the air is heated the amount of moisture it can hold decreases. The bees vent this warm moist air out of the hive through fanning, causing the honey to dry.
Confused??? Tune in next week when!!! 

[Bakersdozen]

Thank you apis for that detailed answer.
My uneducated, gut reaction is that the colony is one large superorganism.  An individual honey bee will always do what is in the best interest of the colony.  A diseased honey bee will fly off rather than infect the colony.  They will cull diseased brood and make a sacrificial sting to a predator.  I have seen bee beards in the rain.  A few move in, but a lot of the bees stay outside.  It just seems that if they were to do harm to the colony by entering the hive soaking wet, they wouldn't do it.  If there were excessive moisture in the hive and they were unable to reduce it, then I think there would be a problem.  They have been doing this for millennia and seem to know what they are doing. 

[Newbee]

Interesting discussion.... I wonder if having a larger over-hang on the cover would be advantageous? Not only to protect against rain, but offer shade on a sunny day?

[Mikey N.C.]

Newbee,
2 yrs. ago i watched a hive ready to swarm under thunderstorms.  Bearded out front,  storm came. I could look out window and every time it lighting the group of bees hung out to dry, would move side to side .

[Bakersdozen]

This is beginning to sound like "old beekeeper tales"!   
A couple of weeks ago it was so hot here that the bees were bearding on the shady side of the hive bodies!  So much for fanning at the entrance to help circulate the air.

[apisbees]

The bees bearding out side are not out there fanning to cool the hive but are staying out of the way of the house bees. Some of the house bees will be out on the entrance fanning to keep the air moving through the hive.

[Bakersdozen]

Thanks apis.  So much to learn, so little time.

[Bakersdozen]

Bees fanning the entrance at 11:00 a.m. 6/27/18.