On Sunday around 4pm, I switched the location of my weak hive (2 frames of bees) to the location of my stronger hive (7 frames of bees). As the field bees returned, most of the returning bees entered the weak hive. I made this move to buildup the numbers in my weak hive. It appeared to work. Everything seemed normal on Monday and I didn't find any dead bees. This morning I went to check on them. Below is what I found:
(http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6940/paisleyswarm003.th.jpg) (http://img801.imageshack.us/i/paisleyswarm003.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
The hive on the right was my weak hive and the one on the left was my strong hive. The bees in my weak hive are bearding on the outside of the box this morning before the sun even came up. This picture was taken at 6:45am. I placed the empty hive body in the middle because I am anticipating having to move the weak hive out of the 2 story nuc back into the 10 frame deep. Anyone know why they are bearding this early in the morning? What should I do to correct it? Thanks
What you should do now is "WAIT". Give them a few days to settle. They have to make adjustments for all the new house guests.
Thanks iddee. Patience is one thing I have to learn as a beekeeper. I still want to go into the hive every couple of days but I have restrained myself because I know that everytime I go in there, I slow them down.
I was thinking about transferring them from the nuc that has a solid bottom board to my deep that has a screen bottom board to improve ventilation but now you have me thinking that everything is fine and all they need is time to adjust to their new home.
I also noticed that they have starting taking sugar water again. Each hive went a couple of weeks without even touching the sugar water and now each hive is back to consuming about a quart every 2 days. Is that normal in Florida for this time of year?
Dean0
They take nectar when available, sugar water when it's not.
If the weak colony is bearding outside, where's the weak hive queen?
I am hoping that she is still inside the weak hive. I am hoping that the increase in population and resources such as nectar and pollen will entice her to start laying more than she has in the past month. The original queen left with a swarm and the slow queen I have now is one that the remaining bees made.