Mesh Bottom boards open

We have been experiencing very nice weather here for the last couple of days and it is supposed to continue like this for the next week. We are having daytime highs of mid 20s and lows of above 10C. With this in mind I took a look at my hives and sure enough they were fanning their entrance quite extensively, even at 7:30 in the evening! I can not imagine how much they were fanning earlier in the day when the sun was on the hives and it was warmer.

Honey bees in the fanning stance. They pull a lot of air out of the hive to keep it cool.

Once I removed the solid bottom board underneath the mesh landing board, the fanning bees all stopped. The next photo was literally taken a minute after the above photo. The bees quickly realized that they no longer had to waste their energy batting their wings. I hope they can do better things like collect nectar.

 I pulled out the solid plywood bottoms and placed them in front of the hives. There was a lot of pollen and wax cappings and mites on the plywood. I took the plywood to the field and scrapped them off right away and called it a day.

I suppose I did take a look under the cover of the white hive to see if the bees were working in the honey super. All the frames were covered in bees. I did not have a smoker, but I imagine they were drawing comb out.