post cute animals

23:26 Slorange: They
23:26 Slorange: They're still at it
23:26 Slorange: It's almost midnight, it's pitch black
23:26 Slorange: And my hive is still covered in bees
23:27 Slorange: And they're not all asleep
23:27 Slorange: What is going /on/ here
[...]
23:31 Slorange: I just went back out and some of them are still circulating air
23:31 Slorange: (Which is itself weird because it is well within pleasant bee temperatures)
23:31 Slorange: But most of them are just hangin' out
23:35 Slorange: There are more of them out here now than there were earlier


???

The bee singularity is fast approaching.

the swarm is reaching critical mass at an incremental rate. of Doom.

Thankfully, Doom tastes just as good as honey!

That's actually about the conclusion I'm coming to. I opened up the hive today at the busiest time of day, and even the top super was just about filled with workers building and filling combs. It might just be that I had a bumper crop of bees this year (which probably means my old queen was replaced by a younger, more fertile one) and there isn't physically room in the hive for everyone when nobody's out foraging.

I mean, that explains why they're outside. Not so much what they're doing outside, but half a mystery's better than a full one.

There's only one thing to do with all these extra bees

Build a bee beard

habitats for beeity

You gonna try and split the hive? (Am I right in thinking that splitting the hive is a thing people do?)

make sure your beekeeper doesn't have any other labors active or else they'll never get around to it.

I'd have to have or get a second queen – which I don't and can't (well, I might be able to, but it'd be difficult this time of year) – if I wanted to split it. I wouldn't want to anyway this time of year, because the colonies probably wouldn't be able to grow quickly enough to survive the winter easily.

The plan now is just to watch for another couple days to see if my hypothesis is right, then install another honey super if it is. The extra space should solve everything; it's handy how modular beehives are.

That giant centipede was great, but the narrator was intolerably obnoxious.

"B-baka! It's not like I'm on your hand because I like you or anything!"

that's not a real animal!

how dare you