[Hillbilly Tilley]

OK, here is the situation. Today I opened a hive which had a super on it to see if it needed another one, which it did. I put an empty super on top and came back to the house. That is where things got weird. I was about 4:00 in the evening, when I heard the roar, it was bees swarming...I had just been in the hive fifteen minutes earlier. I went to watch and sure enough, the sky was full of bees and they were pouring out the front of the hive like water. The front of the hive was black with bees as well as the ground in front of the hive. In less than fifteen minutes the show was over except the porch of the hive was still covered. I could not see where or if the bees went anywhere.

My question is will bees fake a swarm and go back into the hive? Are they practicing for tomorrow? I am not sure if they left or not, but there was still plenty of bees on the outside of the hive after all of the the sky cleared.

Any ideas as to what this was?

Thanks,
Hillbilly

 

[jmgi]

Did the hive have a clipped queen? They would swarm out but if the queen could not fly they would come back. 4 o'clock seems a little late in the day for a swarm to leave, but probably not out of the question. Look in the hive and see if it looks more empty of bees. You might want to check for queen cells while your at it. Another thing, when adding a second super to a hive that needs one, I would put it under the first one as long as the first one is at least half or more filled with honey(nectar). Did the second super have foundation, or drawn comb?

 

[Hillbilly Tilley]

The queen was not clipped. The super was foundation for comb honey. The first super is about 80% full not capped. I put the new super on top.

 

[jmgi]

It's really hard for me to say whether they swarmed or not, I do not believe that bees practice swarming ahead of the real thing. Maybe the queen was unable to fly for some reason and they came back. You will have to be the judge when you look inside the hive. As for the added super, I would put it under the one 80% full, especially if that one is for comb honey also, keeps the cappings from getting stained from bee travel over it to get to the new empty super. As long as the flow is still on, they should begin drawing out the foundation with no hesitation, and will continue to work at filling the first super completely at the same time.