Has anyone seen this happen before?

[berkshire bee]

I had just finished going through 5 hives that are in the backyard when I noticed something strange. I saw what at first I thought were bees just hanging below the bottom board. After looking closer and puffing a little smoke on them, I saw that there were four nice combs hanging from the bottom board. All of the hives are queenright. The only thing I could think of is it's a swarm that has taken up residence there. Anyone ever seen this. We're in westerm MA so it's not AHB territory

[Brent Bean]

A lost swarm sounds plausible, lightly spray them with water and try to capture them in a box or bucket and see if you can coax them into a Nuc or hive.

[Tom G. Laury]

I have seen bees in good honeyflows, when they're hanging, etc., build comb in open empty space outside, like between boxes on a pallet or underneath a pallet. Associated with a lack of space. Yours somehow sounds a little different.

[JohnK and Sheri]

We had a swarm last year that built under a pallet. Not an easy place to access, that is for sure.
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2169497410048587895DvVSdX
Sheri

[odfrank]

Seems to be common.

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t7/odfrank/screenedpalletswarm.jpg

[Tom G. Laury]

When people kept more skeps, in a good honeyflow they would hollow out space beneath the skep, and the bees could build additional comb and store more honey. This was called "eking". Some of this comb bui;ding may be the same thing, bees building down.

[berkshire bee]

Thanks for replies. John and Sheri, The picture you posted is exactly what I have. So are these bees from the same hive they are under or do they likely have a queen down there? My hive was a package installed in late may. Over crowding is not an issue. I recently put a second deep on. If it's another colony, I'll cut and tie the comb into frames and put them in a 5 frame nuc. It would be easy enough to set the hive on screened bottom board and tip that bottom board up to get at the comb

ps: the weather here has been rain every day for well over a week. Today was the first full day without rain. Tomorrow's forecast is ...rain

[JohnK and Sheri]

Ours had a separate queen. We speculated a swarm (maybe from the same colony?) thought it was a nice cozy spot not too far from "mom":), but who knows.

I thought it was interesting the combs pretty much mirrored the ones in the colony above.
Sheri

[Yuleluder]

I've seen this happen a few times. Each time I found another queen under the bottom board. I just found one the other day. I run SBB's, and sometimes it seems virgin queens end up under the SBB, the bees smell her move down and they begin to build comb.

[berkshire bee]

I went out early this morning to take a peek and bees were clustered on the combs, so I'm assuming there is a queen there, but once again, it's raining.

[berkshire bee]

So I finally got out there today. First I checked the hive they were under to be sure there was a laying queen. There was and that hive was going gangbusters. I picked it up and set it aside, minus the bottom board. Next I gently lifted the bottom board to be sure the comb wasn't attached to anything at the bottom. It wasn't so I set it up on end and we cut the combs off one by one and tied them into frames. Lots of brood and the queen looked good. They were very gentle.

[sentientsoil]

Wow, that's great news for ya! I'm surprised the two hives' bees didn't get at each other... I sort of assumed there'd be a higher likelihood of "gang warfare"?

[JohnK and Sheri]

Wow, that's great news for ya! I'm surprised the two hives' bees didn't get at each other... I sort of assumed there'd be a higher likelihood of "gang warfare"?
When you think about it, palletized colonies are really in close quarters too and they do fine. Bees are very adaptable.
Sheri

[sentientsoil]

oh. good point. :o