Fanning
Lexikon
Fanning is the bees beating their wings in place, thereby creating an airflow.
Fanning is the bees beating their wings in place, thereby creating an airflow. It serves to ventilate the hive, to regulate temperature, and above all to evaporate water from nectar that has been brought in. Without this fanning there would be no honey ripening.
On hot days, the bees additionally distribute droplets of water on the combs. Evaporation cools the air in the hive, and fanning at the entrance carries the warm air outside. In summer, in the evening, a strong colony can clearly be heard humming evenly from the fanning bees.
Fanning is often confused with scenting. In scenting, the bee raises its abdomen, exposes the Nasonov gland, and distributes the scent signal with its wingbeat. In fanning, the abdomen stays down and the scent gland closed. Anyone who can tell the two apart recognizes at the entrance the difference between a colony that is merely ventilating and one that is currently calling bees back, for example after a swarm has been hived.