Several years ago one cool still morning I thought my hive in
my back yard had caught fire. What appeared to be thin
white smoke was pouring upwards and outwards from just
above the bottom entrance - but of course it was water
vapour. Moisture-laden air was issuing from the entire length
of the bottom entrance (the only entrance) although a small
patch of bees was fanning on one side only of the landing
board. The plume rose to just above the top of the 4-storey
(full-depth boxes) hive before dissipating, by which point it
was about a metre across. Judging from the apparently very
large volume of air being moved. it seemed to me that the
bees would have no difficulty in rapidly evaporating large
volumes of moisture from their hive.
In the 28 years that I've had the hive in that spot I've only
seen this phenomenon the once - and never from numerous
other hives both here and in other countries.
Regards,
Barry Donovan
Christchurch,
South Island,
New Zealand.