[Colby828]

I checked on the hives this afternoon, a saw bees hanging from the bottom board, I have never seen this. It was about 90 degrees and around 8:30pm when i took the below picture. I was there earlier and there was a smaller cluster hanging there, i wiped them off and they just reformed. I have SBB with the board out. Is there any reason I need to be concerned and what may be going on.

 

[biggraham610]

Saw one of mine doing the same thing tonight I think it was just the high humidity and the heat. G

 

[JWChesnut]

Sometimes with a screen bottom, the queen moves out of the hive and takes up residence under the hive (just another cavity to her). The bees follow to build comb where the queen is.

This is hard to detect, but you can shake the bees back into the boxes and replace the screen bottom (or (less satisfactory) insert the shut off board).

Of course, this may simply be forager bee bearding from the heat in the hive, but you cannot reject the possibility that the queen may have gone exploring for a cool place to start new comb.

 

[bbruff22]

I had a nearly identical situation on one of my hives recently and showed some pics to my bee club friends. It turned out to be bearding, and the hive is fine. I have screened bottoms as well, and they were hanging and clustered up just like your photo. It was only slighly over 80 degrees, but the humidity was/is awful. I was concerned about a swarm committee meeting, but everything is fine.