Temperatures and Taranovs
Like many beekeepers, I'm often thinking about my bees at any time of the day or night. But like most beekeepers, I do my beekeeping during the day.
But not just any time during the day.
Most of my beekeeping is done between late morning and mid/late afternoon.
That's a 6-hour window, or just 25% of the day. During the rest of the time, the bees look after themselves — I don't bother them, at least, not usually.
In temperate regions, other than during a heat wave, that 6-hour period straddles the time when it's a good temperature to open the hives.
And, of equal importance, it includes the temperature at which the bees are much more tolerant of my meddling.
My bees are reasonably well-tempered at the best worst of times, but they're a lot better at 15 °C than they are at 5 °C.
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The timing of my trips to the apiary are therefore determined by my need to do something on a specific date (regular 7-day colony inspections, checking splits for queen cells, feeding the cell raiser) and by the temperature.
If the timing is important, it takes priority. I do whatever is needed irrespective of the temperature.
However, if there's some flexibility in the timing, I look at the weather forecast … and then usually have another coffee before setting off to the apiary.