Beesource Beekeeping Forums banner

Here's a puzzler ... for me

2K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  cooder 
#1 ·
Since I’m an educator, I have lots of time to get into trouble during the Summer. I know, don’t fix it unless it’s broke! … but what happened today?!
We’ve had a cool stretch here, after some blazing hot temps. The weather has been totally messed up since early May. Yesterday, was the first day we’ve had above 70 in three days.

I wasn’t too surprised at Midday when I had a bunch of bees in the air outside my two hives. As the afternoon progressed, the one that has just recovered to a queenright condition after being LW settled down. My strong hive did not! As I sat and watched, more and more bees were coming out of the hive, until I had several hundred in the air.

I couldn’t take it anymore! I grabbed my smoker, and got them all back into the hive (two deeps and a super). Thinking something was amiss, I let them settle down a couple of hours, and went in to investigate.

Since this is my first Summer, they have only started drawing out foundation in the super. I set it aside. Looking at the upper deep, there was lots of brood, capped honey towards the edge, and pollen. No queen cells I could see, some bridging between the lower and upper deep frames with brood, and lots of bees. After clearing the bridge comb, I set the deep to the side. Didn’t find the queen, but that’s par for the course with me.

Looking in the lower deep, there was capped honey toward the outside, then some brood, but a large amount of empty space, partially filled with nectar. I made an executive decision. Placed the upper deep on the screened bottom board, replaced the frames in exact order, placed the lower on the upper, reset the excluder, and returned the super to position.

Did I freak out? Was this all necessary? It certainly calmed everybody down! I’m new and a bit protective. If I haven’t given you experienced folks a chuckle, is there anything I can learn from this experience? Hope I didn’t totally FUBAR a good hive!

Sorry for the length of the post! Awaiting your response. Be nice, now …
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Usually several hundred bees flying in front of their hive in the afternoon indicates new foragers doing their orientation flights. A swarm is several thousand bees swirling above the hive and then slowly moving off to a landing place. A very impressive sounding part of nature.

The orientation flights consist of bees flying within a few feet of the hive entrance going higher and lower and finally re-entering the hive. With a strong hive it will start happening every nice.day.
 
#3 ·
mine did the same thing yesterday. it had been rainy for 3 days till yesterday. the air was poluted with bees that didnt seem to be doing anything but hovering in front of the hive and getting in the way of progress. saw a lot of gray small bees so i knew it was a orientation flight. shure is exciting to know i am gona have that many new foragers
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top