[blueline]

I hived a swarm 48 hours ago and I just went out to check their syrup, and it was empty (1/2 gal. in 2 days). When I went to switch out the feeder, which is a gallon paint can over the inner cover, I couldn't see any bees inside. I thought maybe they didn't like their new home and decided to leave. So I slid the cover back a bit and found that all of the bees are on the first four frames to the far left side of the hive. From everything I have seen and read the bees tend to start on the center frames and work their way out. Are these some extremely whacky bees or is this a common behavior? I'm not concerned about it, just curious.

Thanks
Blueline

 

[Omie]

Maybe the paint can was leaking syrup right down in the middle and the bees were trying to avoid the dripping? That would account for the empty can too.
Check the ground under the hive and/or the bottom board- is it sticky with syrup gunk?

 

[blueline]

I have plastic under the pallet that the hive sits on, to keep the weeds down and it was dry. That was my first thought also. But I have had them leak before and it is pretty obvious with the plastic that it didn't leak.

Blueline

 

[kbfarms]

Apparently they didn't read the same books

 

[fish_stix]

Common behavior!

 

[tnmx]

I have had swarms start on the end and work there way across. It is like they wanted a 5 frame NUC instead of 10 frame hive. It is normal for this to happen.

 

[blueline]

Thanks Guys.

Blueline

 

[dcross]

Are they against the south wall of the box?

 

[Klaus]

Sometimes bees will do what bees want to do. Not to worry, they have been doing things the way that they like for millions of years.

 

[mothergoosemagic]

I'm wondering how cool your temps still are and whether that makes a difference.

We've had cool nights and frost between the time I hived my package (4/19) & did my first full inspection (5/10). The first thing I noticed was that the frames (already drawn comb) immediately next to the entrance (#8,9,10) had no traffic at all. I had the reducer turned to the smallest setting, but all the brood & supplies were as far from the entrance as possible.

Our temps have warmed up since, so I reset the reducer to the next larger size. That *is* located more toward the center of the reducer, so I'll see how that affects which frames they decide to use next.