>My mind then wandered to what one of the veteran beekeepers in my area told
me
>when I first started beekeeping (my area being central Texas, where it also
>does get hot), and that was that "the bees really make honey fast when it
gets
>really hot."  It could have something to do with what plants and trees are
>growing in your particular area and might vary from year to year depending
on
>rainfall, temperature and maybe many other factors, but that was the
>observation.  Also, it seems that hot weather seems to "concentrate" the
nectar
>in some flowers so the bees can collect more concentrated sugars in a
shorter
>period of time.  The nectar flow of some flowers "shuts off" after a rain
and
>doesn't start up again until it gets back to hot and dry.

Beyond the flower source issues, bees are evaporating water out of the
nectar to bring it down to the water levels needed for honey. This should be
affected by the _relative humidity_ of the air in their environment. If I
understand the term correctly, that is the amount of water in the air as a
ratio the the amount of water that is being held by the air. The dew point
being where a drop in temperature would result in the air having to give up
some of the water, which forms dew. The warmer the air the more water it can
hold.

For the bees the lower the relative humidity the easier their job is in
removing the water. Fan air past the cell and the water will evaporate fast.
Cooling the hive would also be easy (if there is water near by) as the water
placed on the frames by the bees will evaporate and take along some of the
heat energy with it as the bees fan the hive.

For the bees to make honey they have to spread out the nectar in many cells
to increase the surface area of the nectar and improve the evaporation. The
more nectar that "touches" the air the faster it would evaporate its water.
The lower the relative humidity the faster this will happen. As the hives
fill up with nectar a low relative humidity will become critical for the
bees to "finish" the nectar into honey by reducing the amount of surface
area needed to dry the nectar the last few percent.

My guess is that a hive could need one or more supers worth of "surface
area" in a high relative humidity environment to cure one super of honey
(that is two supers to get one full). With hot dry air, maybe less?

Just a guess!