Hello I am new to beekeeping and I need your advice and pointers realy on a few issues with my new bees. I took on an over wintered colony last week and went out to have another look at them today to find a whole heap of dead bees under the hive. there also seems to be a fair number of bees congregating on the underside of the hive too. I carried out a full inspection and there are plenty of stores, brood and larvae, I couldnt find the queen but will hope that she is there as all the indications were of that she was there at least recently. I have gone to a brood and a half already just to give them room as there certainly are plenty of bees and several full supers of honey already. If you can shed any insight into the cause of the dead bees and the congregation on the bottom then I would be greatly appreciative.
Cheers
Ryan
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Where are you located? Honey supers left over from last year? How many boxes total?
Hello, based in the UK (Lincoln), some honey from last year and some produced this due to the charming weather recently. In total its a brood box and a half with a single super, so three in total.
Do you have a screened bottom board? Sometimes after a move some of the bees have a hard time orienting to the new position and gather there.
Scott
I, too, had a huge ball of bees on the underside of my 2 screened bottom boards. I had installed 2 nucs a week ago and both hives did the same thing. Day before yesterday, I went out and had at least 100 dead bees under the hive. I guess they starved to death. I ended up reversing the screened bottom board overnight and today they seem to all be in the hives. At least, I didn't have any dead bees under the hives this morning. However, I have gotten different opinions as to whether or not they might have gotten inside and killed my queen. Has anybody else had any experience with this?