Bees congregating under lid...

[Fishdude123]

I put a spacer on top of my hive as I am feeding pollen patties and treating with spearmint or something and I was squishing bees everytime I closed the top. Now when I open the top there is a baseball size clump of bees hanging from the top and a bunch of them fly up when the top is removed. I haven't been stung but it is disconcerting to have them flying aroudn! I would think they should be down working on storing or drawing comb, not lolligagging on top. :)
Your thoughts are appreciated!

[Ian]

Give them space, they will fill it.
If the space is needed to feed, your going to have to put up with the work they will do in the space you left them. Scrape it down, remove the shims after your done feeding. Just the nature of the business.

[Docking]

I've been having the same problem. When the temps got into the 90's I proped open my outer cover for ventalation and they started hanging out there. They were not building any bur comb but I had about 4lbs of bees there at any given time. I would then look inside and there was plenty of room on the upper box, and they had almost emptied the bottom. They didn't even have eggs or larva in the bottom, so I rotated them. Now that it has cooled down, I put the outer cover down and they are still packing in the small gaps. It is almost as if packing them in. I did have some SHB in that hive and I placed some strips on the bottom board to get rid of them, but the bees still pack in. It is just that one hive. I have another hive a few feet away and they don't really even sit on the landing much.

[BEES4U]

Perhaps your "something" is a wee bit volitile and putting out strong vapors.
You might want to check your formulation
Regards,
Ernie Lucas Apiaries

[Fishdude123]

I noticed that my hive is FULL and building swarm cells so I added another box, no more masses of bees under lid!
Now I just need them to pull some of the honey up to the top to clear up the brood nest.

[Brent Bean]

You have answered your own question, why they are lollygagging around, because you have a lot of nurse bees with nothing to do, except prepare to swarm. The time for swarm prevention is gone and swarm control is in order. Or very soon they will solve your overpopulation problem in their tried and true fashion.

By Swarming.

[Fishdude123]

I am a newbie so please bear with me. My understanding is that they are supposed to have honey and pollen AROUND the frames in the brood nest but in my case they ran out of room and though there is still brood in the center there isn't any "free" space.
From what I have heard if you give them more room and uncap honey they will typically pull it up but how do you go about doing this when you want some to be there?
The other challenge I see for my bees is that they are going to have to draw out the foundation in the hive body I gave them as I don't have any empty drawn comb to give them.
Would it be totally insane given the time of year to make a nuc and feed the heck out of it, course I would HAVE to get a queen to do that I assume as I have almost no drones in my hive and I doubt there is much more than a month left before it gets cold.
Would they really swarm this late in the year?

[Brent Bean]

Perhaps you are trying to hard to do what you think the bees should be doing. In reality they know what they need to do had how to do it much better than we do. Work with your bees not against them, I have found that during the warm months when there is natural nectar and pollen available, if I tried to arrange frames in the order I thought was best for them and honey production for me. I only accomplished the opposite result by causing the bees to work harder to put things back where they wanted them which was a setback that affected colony strength and productivity.
Give them room if they need it, feed them if they need it not when you think they need it, and let them build the nest they way they want, their better at it.

[Fishdude123]

I tried to squeeze in the hive to help the other night and I couldn't fit. :D
I will leave them alone for a week and see wha they do, I just don't want them to swarm at this point.