I have two top bar hives each with 3 1" holes drilled toward the bottom height wise and center width wise. Both of these hives this evening has a a clump of bees hanging and blocking the entrances to the hive. My largest top bar hive (2x the size of the other) is covering all three holes w/their clump of bees. The smaller hive is only covering one hole.
Some are attached to the hive, others are hanging from the attached bees. They both look like a swarm, however, on the smaller hive the amount of bees haning could fit on a pencil. I suited up and dug around looking for possibly a queen and didn't find one in either clump of bees. The larger clump, I am not sure I would have seen her (if she's there) but the smaller clump I would have certainly seen her. I spent quite a bit of time going through it and there were probably no more than 100 bees making up the clump on the small hive.
What are they doing? Today is not unusually warm or anything. My other 7 Langstroth hives are not doing anything like this nor do they have any unordinary activity. All looks fine with them. We did just have a small storm come through about 3 hours ago.
Any help would be appreciated.
BTW... Many remember I was hoping to get "a" swarm this year. I have managed to pickup 3 swarms... 1 from a private individual, another from a fire department 2 cities away, and yet another from a city park system. So, I'm pretty happy with that. That brings my overall hive count to 9.
Jeremy
I've uploaded two pictures:
http://jeremy.cowgar.com/files/TBHClump_1.JPG
http://jeremy.cowgar.com/files/TBHClump_2.JPG
Maybe this will help. Thanks again,
Jeremy
Jeremy,
I think they are just hanging out on the front porch. My bees do that all the time on the Langstroth hives, even when it doesn't seem all that hot. I noticed with mine, that it's mostly younger bees.
Alan
Jeremy--Nice to hear from you again!
My biggest hive did this the cool, drizzly week before it swarmed. Do you know if these hives happen to be crowded?
Luvin Honey,
Yeah, it has been a while since I have posted... :-( .. All has been going well and I've been keeping up on threads but nothing new has come up from what I've already asked :-D I'm not to the point yet of answering other peoples questions with any certainty, so that has led to a lull in my activity, but I'm here, alive and well!
No, they are not crowded. Each has about 8 empty bars to build on. I keep moving the follower boards down as they build more comb.
Jeremy
Quote from: luvin honey on July 18, 2009, 05:53:46 PM
Jeremy--Nice to hear from you again!
My biggest hive did this the cool, drizzly week before it swarmed. Do you know if these hives happen to be crowded?
My one top bar hive continues to do this on and off. Seems to be related to how humid it is. Any chance it's a sign of a humidity problem? Now, one one day, I went out and 4 of my 9 hives were "clustering" like this on the outside of the hive. 2 top bar hives and 2 langstroth hives. Only two of my established hives were not doing it. The other ones not doing it were 1 and 2 week old swarms that I caught, I wouldn't expect them to have the number of bees to accomplish this.
I'm really curious why they are doing this.
Jeremy
Quote from: jeremy_c on July 22, 2009, 09:07:43 PM
My one top bar hive continues to do this on and off. Seems to be related to how humid it is. Any chance it's a sign of a humidity problem? Now, one one day, I went out and 4 of my 9 hives were "clustering" like this on the outside of the hive. 2 top bar hives and 2 langstroth hives. Only two of my established hives were not doing it. The other ones not doing it were 1 and 2 week old swarms that I caught, I wouldn't expect them to have the number of bees to accomplish this.
I'm really curious why they are doing this.
Jeremy
Ever worked in real high humidity, it exhausting. Same for the bees, the higher the humidity the hotter it is, the more confined the area, the hotter it is, to reduce the heat and the humidity the bees need to put more distance between them, hence on hot, humid, days the bees beard so the inside of the hive can be better climate controlled.
It is normal.