Help! Bee poop and now beardingish thing...
1 yr bee keeper.... my 7 hives have now come out our winter season. i noticed ALOT of bee poop on the base board of what had been my strongest hive. Today, i switched out the floor board with a clean one. And pushed the top brood box back 1/2 inch for ventilation (i live in the SW and its due to be 90 next weekend all of a sudden). The bottom brood box was empty. i'm assuming the bees wanted to stay as far away from the poop as possible.
Now, 6 hours later, poop is already starting to appear on the new base board AND there's about one-two handful of bees bearding up underneath the 1 inch overhanging top board.... Whats going on? What can i do to help the bees with the poop and why are they bearding? it got no warmer than 70 degrees today.....
my other 6 hives are all doing very well, and i'm gonna have to split one or two of them soon....
Re: Help! Bee poop and now beardingish thing...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
gonzo
1 yr bee keeper.... my 7 hives have now come out our winter season. i noticed ALOT of bee poop on the base board of what had been my strongest hive. Today, i switched out the floor board with a clean one. And pushed the top brood box back 1/2 inch for ventilation (i live in the SW and its due to be 90 next weekend all of a sudden). The bottom brood box was empty. i'm assuming the bees wanted to stay as far away from the poop as possible.
Now, 6 hours later, poop is already starting to appear on the new base board AND there's about one-two handful of bees bearding up underneath the 1 inch overhanging top board.... Whats going on? What can i do to help the bees with the poop and why are they bearding? it got no warmer than 70 degrees today.....
my other 6 hives are all doing very well, and i'm gonna have to split one or two of them soon....
I suspect your hive is about to swarm, I noticed boarding on one of my hives last week, two days later it swarmed. Thankfully I captured it.
Re: Help! Bee poop and now beardingish thing...
why would it swarm if the bottom broodbox is completely empty? They have plenty of room to expand in the hive....
Re: Help! Bee poop and now beardingish thing...
bah... disregard... i found my answer.... noob bk doesn't know the difference between poop and wax cappings..... duhho...
