The Wisdom Bees Use to Make It Through the Midsummer Bee Square Yamada Bee Farm

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The Wisdom Bees Use to Make It Through the Midsummer

Yamada Bee Farm Beekeeping Division
Hiroto Fujiyoshi

What do you suppose bees collect from the fields outside their hives? The first thing most people think of is nectar and pollen. However, the bees also collect propolis collected from nature because it is made from the tree sap and sprouts. Another important thing, you might be surprised, is water.
The bees boost the sugar content of honey they store in the beehive so that it can be preserved longer. The worker bees dilute this honey with water before they feed it to the larvae. Water also functions as the coolant to adjust the temperature inside the beehive.
On a hot day, you can see bees at watering places near the bee farm. As the temperature rises, the number of bees increases and they swarm together to consume the water.

The heat in midsummer is also severe for bees. To keep the temperature inside the beehive at around 35 degrees centigrade, they successively carry water and sprinkle it inside the beehive to lower the temperature through heat evaporation. This is just an example of the wisdom that bees have accumulated over their long history. Also, a lot of worker bees flutter their wings in front of the beehive with their heads facing the beehive. They do this to create the effect of a fan to draw the hot air inside the beehive to the outside.
Interestingly, the native Japanese species Apis cerna japonica does the same thing with the head facing the outside of the beehive. In other words, they adjust the temperature by letting the outside air in. You can also see swarms of numerous bees that appear pitch black, gathered on the wall outside the beehive entrance to enjoy the evening cool. They appear to be attempting to cool down the interior of the beehive by making the bee density in the beehive more sparse. Without receiving any instruction, some bees carry water and others function as a fan to work on behalf of the entire swarm, each silently performing its own part.
It's hot not only for honeybees. Wearing a shirt with long sleeves, a pair of boots, and a hat with a net called the face cloth, our bee farm staff members who take care of the honeybees are normally bathed in perspiration in the strong summer sun. One of the most important tasks to be carried out in this season is the weeding in the bee farm. Because weeds grow very fast in summer, they can block the beehive entrance, so we mow them. But, they grow so fast that we end up having to mow them repeatedly.
Beehives pass the summer in places where it is not hot and summer flowers are continuously available. We also place beehives in Hiruzen Heights, a famous summer resort located between Okayama Prefecture and Tottori Prefecture. The sources of nectar may not be available in the lowlands in some periods of summer, but flowers are always available in the cool Hiruzen Heights at an altitude of about 800 m, with the tree flowers in the mountains and autumn flowers such as bushclover blooming in succession. It is probably another world altogether for bees to have cool weather and be surrounded by flowers. Naturally, honey collected in such a place is mixed and thus becomes a honey made from hundreds of flowers. As a result, it has a rich flavor full of depth.
The work of beekeeping is hard, affected by the weather such as long rains or the abnormally low temperatures experienced in the spring of this year, and the high temperatures under the scorching summer sun, and plants may not bloom and provide nectar in the same way every year. However, I want experience the real thrill of life in nature, sharing the troubles and pains of the honeybees.