[Islandbeegirl]

I'm new to beekeeping so I have a ton of questions. But this one I can't fine an answer to on my own. I got home late, around 10pm. Its been a hot day during the day 25 celcius at the highest with 70% humidity. Temp is currently 19 degrees celcius. The hive contains a captured swarm I found and placed in the hive 3 days ago. This is what I find. Are they possible thinking about leaving? It 10pm and getting cool.I habe never seen any of the other hives do this.

 

[Islandbeegirl]

Sorry the Photo didnt uploading not sure why. So let me try and explain it. There is a small cluster just outside the hive entrance the reduced entrance itself if backed full of bees and they are all clinging to each other. They are not fanning just sitting there. There is about 30 outside but the entrance is Packed full.

 

[herbhome]

You may want to consider opening your entrance to a wider setting. When the days and nights are warmer the bees will start hanging out outside to help keep the nest heat down. I'd say if your nights are not dropping below 10C, then they can handle a larger entrance.

I'm in the south, if you include your region in your profile info, folks near you can offer better advise.

 

[crofter]

I am thinking it could be quite cool yet at night and the population a bit low; I think they might be using bodies to actually reduce the opening to curb ventilation.

 

[Oldtimer]

She said 25 C daytime and 19 C at night, that's pretty warm, my guess is they could use some more room.

 

[GregV]

Sorry the Photo didnt uploading not sure why. So let me try and explain it. There is a small cluster just outside the hive entrance the reduced entrance itself if backed full of bees and they are all clinging to each other. They are not fanning just sitting there. There is about 30 outside but the entrance is Packed full.

You did not specify important details:
- size of the hive given to the swarm
- size of the swarm (relative to the hive).

25C - is not too hot at all. Not worried their.

I would expand the hive by some increment rather soon and do nothing else.
Looks to me, they are barely fitting in the hive - not exactly great for the bee morale and for the bee-forced ventilation.
That what the picture shows (there are spilling out due to the over-crowding).

 

[crofter]

How many frames, drawn or not and size of swarm.

 

[Islandbeegirl]

The swarm was about 2.5 to 3lbs. They are in a 10 fram deep with a hive top feeder. There are 2 maybe 3 frams drawn. I have some foundationless frams for the second and 8th frames. They are bridging on. I didn't want to poke around to much so soon. I have not pulled frams to check for eggs yet. They have plenty of room.

 

[grozzie2]

We are running all of our colonies with entrances wide open these days and I see a fair amount of bearding in the evening when it's still warm but all the foragers are home for the night. If the hive is in the sun during mid afternoon with an entrance reduced they will likely overheat on days like we have had for the last few days. For perspective, even my mating nucs have had bearding in the evening over the last couple of days.

If the swarm has been in the box for 3 days, they are likely going to stay. What part of CR are you in, knowing that, can probably make a fairly educated guess as to where the bees came from.

As an FYI, over 6 years of taking swarm calls for the Campbell River area, I've found marked queens in more than half of the swarms we have collected.