With warm weather in the northeast yesterday I took the opportunity to check on the hives quickly to see if they needed an extra frame of honey. I have 11 hives and last year most were new. One hive however was my most populous hive and was gang buster all season long. I pulled brood frames and honey off of it all season. I wintered them with close to 100 lbs of honey/sugar syrup and they were choke full 2 deeps. The hive next door was returning itself in September and went into the winter with about 6 full frames of bee. Well upon opening the large hive was empty with a scattering I’d dead bees. However the hive next door that was 6-7 framed going into the winter was filled to the brim with bees... I felt the need to mountain camp this hive due to the sheer volume of bees in it.
So my question is has anyone seen bees migrate from one hive to a hive 3 feet away during the colder part of the fall going into winter? Also any thoughts on what could cause such a thing?
So my question is has anyone seen bees migrate from one hive to a hive 3 feet away during the colder part of the fall going into winter? Also any thoughts on what could cause such a thing?