Bees clustering in frame feeder?

776 Views 2 Replies 2 Participants Last post by dkofoed, Apr 11, 2014

dkofoed

Discussion Starter · Apr 11, 2014

I did a quick inspection today, a week after installing my 2 packages. I have frame feeders in both hives and I noticed that in one of them, there were a ton of bees IN the feeder, clustered together up along the sides (inside). The level was way down, maybe a couple inches depth left. I'm just curious what that might be about?

The other hive has the exact same setup, but they were taking more from the jar feeder and less from the frame feeder (i have both feeders on to experiment at the moment). There were just a handful of bees in the frame feeder in that hive.

I just found it curious as to why there would be such a difference in feeding habits between the two hives, as well as the clustering behavior inside the frame feeder itself. Any thoughts?

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JClark

· #2 · Apr 11, 2014

Nothing is normal except the absence of normality. There is variability in everything. The bees in the frame feeder are either really trying to get to the food or they put some comb in there and the queen moved in.

I'd let it go completely dry and if it is still full of bees then, most likely, there is some comb w/ brood in there.

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dkofoed

Discussion Starter · #3 · Apr 11, 2014

Ooops ... I already filled it up. Newbie mistake perhaps. I really want to ditch the frame feeders anyway, so I'll probably let it run dry now and then just use the top feeders going forward (until I can stop feeding once they have some capped stores!).

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