Friday, July 28, 2017

Great Weather and Nectar Ripening

The nice sunny weather will really give the bees a great opportunity to dehumidify any uncapped honey.
 It wouldn't surprise me, if you go out today and look at your colonies, that you would see bees at every opening fanning their wings.
 The bees are bringing in the warm dry air. The air currents of air that they move around in their hive, will bring down the moisture content of the nectar as it ripens into honey.
 Sometimes in humid weather, even though the honey is capped, it could still have a high moisture content. This dry weather can help improve that scenario.
 The beeswax capping are hygroscopic. That means it can absorb or give off water vapor right through the cappings.
 This sunny weather will keep the bees out working the nectar plants. I do think the nectar coming in has slowed a bit. But there still is nectar coming in.
 The nectar flow is probably about 65% - 70% over if I was to put a number on the nectar flow. The bees are still trying to store honey. If your supers are full, there is still time to add one more.