An article by Bernd Heinrich entitled "Comfort in a Hive: Heads You're Hot, Tails You're Cold," Natural History, Vol. 102, No. 8 (August 1993) p. 53-54 summarizes some temperature effects on honey bees and the bees' activities to control temperature in a beehive that does not have apparatus designed to cool the beehive artificially in hot weather. A limiting factor in honey production is the bees' ability to dry nectar. For three pounds of nectar, the bees must evaporate about two pounds of water to produce about one pound of honey. At 70.degree. F. and 50% relative humidity for example, the bees need about 1,700 cubic feet of air to evaporate each pound of water.
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