Another extreme bout of Indian Summer has hit The Dale with temps in the 90's and 100's. At 5pm it is still over 90 and the bees are bearding in search of some cooling.
I knew they were in an agitated state so I got fully garbed to put the entrance reducer in place so they would have less area to defend. This is a very strong and active hive but there is no reason to expose them any more than necessary.
I had proof very quickly how agitated, I had forgotten to put on my rubber boots and one of the bees nailed my foot through the cotton socks. I should have known better. One bee followed me into the laundry room but left. I went inside to disrobe and found out a couple bees had been hanging on me somewhere. One of the dogs spotted the bee and declared :"Fly, its a fly." and tried to bite it until she realized her mistake. Then she was screaming BEE!! BEE! Between us we dispatched her antagonists. A little later the boy dog found the dead bee on the floor and commenced to bark loudly, letting us know he had protected us from evil.
The other hive was normal yesterday and I did not want to disturb them any so I did not do anything. This afternoon they seemed to have the same excessive activity so I slipped an entrance reducer on that one too. Within 10 minutes they seemed to have calmed down. This is the nice hive, the Playa bees and I was able to put the piece on without donning my bee suit but I did not stay around long either.
Temps are supposed to drop 20-30 deg by the weekend so things should be back to normal and both hives are now set to defend themselves from robbing.
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