Sweet Experience is a blog series sharing time with Chris, a beekeeper from the beautiful Bay of Islands .

You will live with Chris' marae (Maori meeting house) and community and hear about his experiences caring for the bees and the process that goes into producing the finest Manuka honey.

 

This time, Chris tells us about an amazing skill that bees have... they can predict the weather!

One cloudy autumn day in the Bay of Islands, Chris was tending his beehives when he noticed a swarm of bees coming up the hill, flying through the manuka trees, and returning to their hives. We looked up and the sky turned into a highway of bees. Chris stopped what he was doing, looked up, and shouted, "It's starting to rain!"

Just as Chris had shouted, after a while raindrops started to fall from the sky. Chris laughed and said, "Little creatures don't lie."

Bees can sense when bad weather, rain or strong winds are approaching, and they will seek shelter before the bad weather sets in so they don't get caught up in it. Bees cannot survive in strong winds and rain, so they need to be in a safe place before the strong winds and rain start.

 

News articles also report on the bees' weather-predicting behavior that Chris shared with us, suggesting that the bees may be able to sense changes in atmospheric pressure.

Another article suggests that they may be foraging more than usual to ensure they have food before the storm hits. A study conducted at Jiangxi Agricultural University in Nanchang, China, also found that bees work harder before rainy days.

We knew bees were smart and hardworking, but now we know they are even better.

Thank you for reading our Sweet Experience series, we hope to bring you the story of New Zealand beekeeping through this blog.

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