Hot and cold

I doubt that many readers of The Apiarist also read the Daily Mirror. Those who do will be familiar with the tabloids' infatuation with the weather, evidenced by the frequent articles and dramatic headlines they employ.

There's barely a warm week heatwave, damp week deluge, or cold week icy blast forecast that doesn't get exaggerated billing. Presumably they've done their market research, and they know it attracts subscribers (or perhaps 'clicks', as they don't sell many physical newspapers these days {{1}}).

Climate change must be 'the gift that keeps on giving' as far as the Daily Mirror is concerned.

Couch potatoes vs. real potatoes

Anyone who spends time outdoors probably takes more notice of the forecast (and the weather when it arrives) than someone who is office-bound all week, and sofa-bound all weekend.

By comparing the forecast with reality they learn how to interpret future predictions.

Here in Scotland we know that it's rarely as hot, or cold, or wet as the meteorologists in the South-East predict.

And it's never as extreme as the Daily Mirror suggests 😉.

Whilst there's some truth to the adage “there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing”, for many outdoor activities, benign weather (it doesn't have to the 'good') certainly helps.

And it doesn't only help us … it helps the things we're working with as well. My potatoes went in once the threat of frost had largely passed, and my beekeeping really picked up once temperatures of ~14 °C could consistently be relied upon (the potatoes and the bees were the real beneficiaries here).

Other than my potatoes, the weather has been on my mind for three reasons; my attempted prediction of when swarming would start, getting new queens mated, and avoiding heat exhaustion when inspecting colonies on the warmest days last month.

Let's deal with those in reverse order.