I was picking blackberries with my daughter and her cousin today. When we were done I took them up to the bees so her cousin could see his first beehives and to make sure bear have not gotten in to em. One hive had a beard on the front entrance. I have seen this when it is cold and they seemed to be making there own reduced entrance. This was similar looking but a few other clumps of bees on front of box too. It was only in mid 70's and cloudy. It rained last night, nothing crazy, and the low was in the 70's. This hive had two nucs made from it till one deep box was left. I then added a checker boarded deep with foundation and drawn comb. I also added a medium with foundation on that. This was a little over a month ago when I added boxes and I was in the hive probably two weeks ago or less and there were no signs of swarming. I am very impressed with this hive though cause it is really booming beyond my expectations already.
None of the other hives were bearded. It was not hot. Its not cold. They cant be crowded. Do they ever do this if they are getting robed or under attack from wasps to protect honey or brood? Gunna swarm? Man I hope they are not going to swarm on me again. There are so many old knobby oak with holes in em, I drought the swarm would hang on a tree branch very long. I would have went into hive right away to check for swarm cells but I have two 4 year olds to care for today so thats not going to happen.
Any thought appreciated!!
I wouldn't worry too much, my bees are bearding now, as I type this, its pouring rain, in the 80's. I see them do it all the time. When I did have a swarm last month, they just up an left to a tree for an hour then split. Never to be seen again. I split that hive three ways. and now have three new hives doing fine. Bees tend from my limitied experience do that sort of thing. Just hangin out.
Well I went into this hive today and to my disbelief it was full to the rim with bees. The hive went bonkers. Guess what I found. Yep, swarm cells cups. UUHHH!! This hive is kickin my butt. I checked my videos and I took the last nuc on July 11th. They had one deep box left. I added a deep with empty drawn comb and frames of foundation checkerboarded plus a medium box with all frames of foundation. Every frame was drawn out but one side on one on outside of top medium box. they are packing honey like mad. I was in em about three weeks ago and they had moved into second deep but nothing alarming. I should of went into em last week but my dad wanted to come with me so I had to wait because of weather and my work schedule till today. I scraped the cells off but you know they will be back. I will go up there tomorrow and add a empty box. I just cant believe they are crowded already. My other hives do not even compare to the activity of this hive. WOW!!
I read Michel Bush say that they should never be allowed to beard. Next time I see my bees bearding when its not hot out, I will pay my attention bill really fast!!
>>>>I read Michel Bush say that they should never be allowed to beard.<<<<
Would you provide a link, please. I would like to read that.
I dont have a link.
I should have read my post again before I posted. The statement is very misleading and out of context.
Sorry, I should have never made a quote like that.
What was clear in my head was...
I read a post in which he said something like bees should never be allowed to over crowd to the point where they have to beard for room, or something to that extent anyway. Much different then the stupid blunt comment I made of "should never be allowed to beard"
Bees should never be allowed to run out of space. That I can agree with.
Bees bearding, in my opinion, can be a sign of a strong, healthy hive. The bigger the beard, the better, in certain instances.
Again, understanding the different circumstances is the key to understanding bees. There are few, if any, all encompassing statements.
bee-nuts, ship me some of those queen cells pronto :-D.
One of my hives swarmed early in the summer and later I noticed them bearding, less than a month later. I added a super and they stopped but now they are berading again.
rast
The original queen this hive got in spring was from Florida. Swarmed once already, tried again before I made two ten frame nucs and trying again now.
Even if you were serious its to late cause I scraped em off, but Ill sell you some of the next batch if you really want or even a five frame nuc with cells.
iddee
Yup, I agree with all you said.
It is just disappointing to go into a hive first with smiles of joy only to have grins of frustration when they want to bail on you. Oh well, this is life. I cant wait till next spring, More fun and frustration, hopefully mostly fun.
Now I have to figure out why the other hives did not go bonkers. Hopefully there not loaded with mites. I thought they were still building up after they swarmed in June. They always keep you guessing.
1..Hive doesn't swarm..........
That's nice. Maybe I'll get more honey.
2..Hive swarms and I catch the swarm.........
That's nice. Now I'll have more hives.
3..Hive swarms and leaves........
That's nice. Now there will be more feral hives in the area.
There is only fun, no frustration, in beekeeping, if your attitude is right. :evil: :-D
"There is only fun, no frustration, in beekeeping, if your attitude is right."
LOL. You sound like my boss at work.
More Feral hives is fine with me but I'm not one of those people that can always see the positive side of things and smile. I tend to see what I call a realistic view of things which in this case would be a lot less bees and probably uncapped honey instead of a bunch of capped honey in a couple of weeks.
I picked up a few books to read since I moved to three 12 hours shifts and four days off. Awesome cause now I have more time to spend with my hobby. If only we stay busy enough for this to continue through next season. Anyway I want to quote a few sentences in a book I'm reading, bearding, and swarming behavior.
The book is, Practical Beekeeping by Enoch Tompkins and Roger M. Griffith, printed in 1981.
This is not a quote: Roughly it says that they will have queen cell cups much of the time and this does not mean they are preparing to swarm but it you see them building new wax (you will see the different color) on them that they are now preparing to swarm. So I was thinking, well that's good news because that is not exactly what I observed and there was no larva in the few I looked in. But then of course came this
Direct quote: "Another sign of swarming is when the bees start to cluster on the landing board of the hive and around the entrance. However, this clustering may take place during warm weather when the bees are trying to cool the hive. Or it may take place at the end of a honeyflow when the bees have nothing to do." end quote folks.
It has not been hot, there is a flow, and none of the other hives are behaving this way.
So it sound like there gunna swarm to me. If they do, they will leave a hive in poor shape for winter I think. In order to shake em I would have to buy more equipment. I have already dumped enough money into this hobby this year so I guess I will probably just let nature take its course.
Of course the guy typing here is bee-nuts so I'll probably be shaking next week. LOL.
Quote from: iddee on August 26, 2009, 10:26:28 AM
1..Hive doesn't swarm..........
That's nice. Maybe I'll get more honey.
2..Hive swarms and I catch the swarm.........
That's nice. Now I'll have more hives.
3..Hive swarms and leaves........
That's nice. Now there will be more feral hives in the area.
There is only fun, no frustration, in beekeeping, if your attitude is right. :evil: :-D
I like your attitude Iddee!!!!
..Hive doesn't swarm..........
That's nice. Maybe I'll get more honey.
2..Hive swarms and I catch the swarm.........
That's nice. Now I'll have more hives.
3..Hive swarms and leaves........
That's nice. Now there will be more feral hives in the area.
There is only fun, no frustration, in beekeeping, if your attitude is right
What a great way to look at this hobby... or anything else.