snoopybee
06-23-2006, 07:28 PM
after several incidents of swarming or abscounding and wax moth problems the two colonies I installed 8 Apr were very weak. On 06 june I combined them. When I started the combine I thought I had only a just emerged queen in one hive and none in the other. As I was combining I discovered capped brood in the hive I thought queenless and looking for the third time discovered the queen. At that point I was far enough along that I had to finish. I hoped the bees would settle the queen issue with the laying queen as the suvivor! I placed them in a sbb medium with a follower siting on landscape timber( about 4 inches off the ground). things seemed to be going ok so last evening I moved them up on a metal stand about 8 inches high because I have a lot of fire ant activity here and wanted to be able to see if they got after my bees. I don't have an insert in the sbb because of the extreeme temps here (90 - 103 F daytime.) I worked in the yard around them all afternoon and noticed nothing unusual. This evening when I went to put up my tools there was a large number of bees circling the front of the hive as if a start of a swarm! After a few minutes they settled down and normal activity of 2's and 3's were coming and going bring in pollen etc. There was perhaps a couple dozen bees struggling on the ground and not able to get back to hive. all looked healthy except one whose wings appeared to have been chewed. Most of them appeared to be smaller, perhaps immature. since this occurred the day I moved them to a higher stand 1) are they bothered by the additional light from the open sbb since it is now more open? 2) Could this explain their propensity to leave in the past?
Sorry this is so long but I have no clue. The only common thing seem to be the higher stand which I also had when I originally installed them. If past performance is an indicator they will leave in a day or so. When i lifted the hive up it didn't seem to be heavy enough to be full of bees, brood and honey.
Sorry this is so long but I have no clue. The only common thing seem to be the higher stand which I also had when I originally installed them. If past performance is an indicator they will leave in a day or so. When i lifted the hive up it didn't seem to be heavy enough to be full of bees, brood and honey.