yesterday evening, I checked the queen cages to see if queens were released, & they weren't, but candy was almost gone. Of course I had to open the hive bodies to do so & noticed last night a handfull of bees on the underside of the bottom board on both hive bodies. Just now I checked & bees are still on the underside of the bottom boards. Should I do anything to usher these bees back in or just leave them alone. I did add a stick to both hives, as to try & direct them to the hive entrance last night, but it didn't do anything.
Thnx for all replies & suggestions
JP.
QuoteOf course I had to open the hive bodies to do so & noticed last night a handfull of bees on the underside of the bottom board on both hive bodies. Just now I checked & bees are still on the underside of the bottom boards.
Do you have a picture? I'm a little confused (very easy for me!) about how you're seeing bees underneath the bottom board by opening the hive. Do you hives not sit on a stand? Is there an opening that is allowing them to go underneath the hive?
Sherry,
my boxes are approx. 18" from the ground, & I have screen bottoms on both hives. The boxes are on bench-like stands made of 2x4's with 1x2's on top of the 2x4's, to allow rainwater to escape.
also need to mention that the 1x2's are spaced out 2" apart.
Oh screen bottoms. Yeah they were trying to get into the hive from the bottom. And probably gave up. I had bees stay on the bottom for awhile and I guess they finally figured it out. Herd them in if you want to. couldn't hurt.
Okey Dokey .... Yeah, like Jerry said, they'll figure it out. Must be "blonde" bees :lol:
Are these a package? I just do direct releases in packages. I'd let the queens out and see if that doesn't clear things up. Also, with a package, I would have the tray in the SBB. If you don't have one, I'd MAKE one and close up the SBB until it gets hot in the summer. A package needs to be able to heat and humidify the brood area and that's hard for a package with an open SBB.
If they are confused about the smells coming from the SBB it will help with that to close it also.
Michael,
it's 85 degrees here in Louisiana
At night?
This happened to me when I started my hive. I left them alone. Just be careful not to squish any bees when you put the covers back on. It's almost an impossible thing with that many bees up there.