Sounds like they tried to abscond but soon realized the queen couldn't fly away with them. Are they on undrawn foundation? If so what kind?
Lots of noise and flying around. Mystery
So my 'new' hive still has her queen in a cage, and if the bees stop looking like they want to kill her, I may take out the cork tomorrow and let them chew through the candy to her (day 4 tomorrow).
Today while I was out doing yard work, in the morning, I heard a lot of buzzing, and saw a cloud of bees (must have been a whole hives worth) flying around the hive, and in a matter of seconds, they all landed on the hive and literally covered it. Lots of activity, I assumed it was robbing, but didn't have the time to address it (sheet method, or whatever - the hive has the smallest entrance configured right now). I had to leave to work, but when I got back, things seemed normal. I opened the hive (no smoke), took a peek, and things appear to be normal - the hive seems a bit noisier (agitated), but only a few bees were interested in buzzing around me. The queen is alive, still surrounded by bees that seem to want to eat her and not feed her.
So is this activity normal? Perhaps it was a wild swarm attempting robbing? There aren't dead bees all over, and it didn't appear that the bees from this hive were all out and about. Really hard to say. Perhaps it's just one of natures mysteries?
I initially thought robbing, then thought they might be swarming or absconding. But it looks normal. Any thoughts?
Today while I was out doing yard work, in the morning, I heard a lot of buzzing, and saw a cloud of bees (must have been a whole hives worth) flying around the hive, and in a matter of seconds, they all landed on the hive and literally covered it. Lots of activity, I assumed it was robbing, but didn't have the time to address it (sheet method, or whatever - the hive has the smallest entrance configured right now). I had to leave to work, but when I got back, things seemed normal. I opened the hive (no smoke), took a peek, and things appear to be normal - the hive seems a bit noisier (agitated), but only a few bees were interested in buzzing around me. The queen is alive, still surrounded by bees that seem to want to eat her and not feed her.
So is this activity normal? Perhaps it was a wild swarm attempting robbing? There aren't dead bees all over, and it didn't appear that the bees from this hive were all out and about. Really hard to say. Perhaps it's just one of natures mysteries?
I initially thought robbing, then thought they might be swarming or absconding. But it looks normal. Any thoughts?
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I'm using small cell foundation, wax. Looks like they are drawing it out still (lots of activity on the center few frames (it's an 8 frame hive)).
Had 2 hives recently that did the same thing with new queens. 24 hours after I put them in their new hive, bees were still balled and biting around the cages. I took both queens out, went back the next afternoon and set them on top of the frames just to see how the girls reacted. This time, they were loving their new queens with their tongues thru the cages.
So, my advice would be to make them queenless for a bit then reintroduce. It's worked for me numerous times.
So, my advice would be to make them queenless for a bit then reintroduce. It's worked for me numerous times.
Interesting! I may try that out! Thanks!
Watch them carefully. I had 4-5 do the same thing to the cage, sticking their tongues through feeding the queen and workers....so I set the cage inside the hive and went on with my day(after leaving them queenless or so i thought)came back alter that evening and it was a freeforall to kill the queen. Now, understand that I inadvertantly tried to give them a queen when they already had one. She was a small one, but she was there. We looked 9 times between 3 beeks and never spotted her until i checked the 10the tenth time. If these were packages, you may ave a virgin in there that got shook in....just make sure...and then when you are sure....make sure again!!!
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