Bees and persistent, consistent smoke

Missoula, MT is at the intersection of 5 major valleys, in the mountains on the west side of the continental divide.  Timber is a major industry, and most of our hillsides and mountains are cloaked with trees.  Every year, we experience forest fires.  About once every 5 years, we have a very bad fire season, and we get fires near town in most, if not all, of the 5 valleys.  

From my house, I can sometimes see the fires in all directions.  Doesn't matter which way the wind blows, the smoke stays because it's being fed by fires from all directions.  Twice we've had so many fires so close to town, that one can stand on the UM campus, which is located rihgt at the Foot of MT Sentinel, and we can't see the large white concrete M 800 ft above the campus, nor can we see the mountains surrounding the Missoula valley - it's the smoke version of a dense fog.  This can and has lasted for several days.

Under those conditions, our bees stay in their hives, stop foraging, except to gather some water.  Just like their human-counterparts who call in to work to say they have to stay home, the fire is moving towards their house; the bees hunker down, wait to see what's going to happen.  They don't leave, but they stay close to home.  The yards are weirdly quite.

I've also seen colonies on our prairies survive fast moving grass fires.  The fires sweep through the beeyard, the bees fan like crazy, and as the fire races on, I've seen bees still fanning in hives with some charring of the hive exteriors, but the honey and bee population are still intact, with little honey melt.  Of course, a slow moving fire consumes everything, and the bees will leave.

Jerry

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