Inspecting the bees

I was wondering why the bees were “hanging out” on the outside of the box so decided to open it up and see what was going on inside.

The inside was FULL of bees and it was a hot day so they were doing what is called BEARDING.  That means it is starting to gett too hot and humid inside so the colony has some of the workers go outside making more room to move air inside to cool the hive.  Nothing to be alarmed about.  We’ll give them a bit more room inside by adding a third box called a medium (or a super).  This box will normally just hold honey that be harvested later.  The gentleman in the picture is Stan Jones from the Brighton Bee Club.