NORTH CAROLINA -- Years ago, and way back when in high school (the early 80s) I kept bees. Nothing fancy, wasn't making a business of it; more or less a conversational topic of sorts.  A friend of mine asked me the other day, "Can bees predict the weather?" 

• The study found that the honey bees, on days prior to rainy days, spent more time out of the hive foraging for honey as compared to days where rain was not forecast the next day
• In, short, perhaps, bees might have some skill in sensing the atmospheric changes ahead of rain
• While no clear conclusions can be drawn, it is an interesting bit of scientific study

Hmmm a question that needed some thought.  I don't ever recall in my years of bee keeping any of the books and bee keepers passing on knowledge of such a skill.  But, in the back of a book, I found an article I had printed from "The Wiley Online Library. 

The article reported on some research being done at Jiangxi Agricultural University in Nanchang, China. The researchers had attached tiny radio tags to 300 honey bees from three different hives. What they discovered was eye opening for American based bee researchers.  

Yes, perhaps, bees can predict the weather. The study found that the honey bees, on days prior to rainy days, spent more time out of the hive foraging for honey as compared to days where rain was not forecast the next day. In, short, perhaps, bees might have some skill in sensing the atmospheric changes ahead of rain.

Any bee keeper will tell you, bees just don't shop for one day of food at a time. Bees forage for food, store nectar that becomes honey and allow a bee colony too survive during time with no food source that may go on for months, usually in Winter. 

While no clear conclusions can be drawn, it is an interesting bit of scientific study. From a practical standpoint, who has time to watch a bee hive all day in order to get the next days forecast?