Hello I have a new hive with 2 deep brood boxes. No signs of Supercedure cells. Bees were from a 5 frame nuc installed on May 13. I have many many bees spending time on the outside of the boxes and on the landing board. They seem to be doing a back and forth "dance". Is anyone familiar with this behavior?? This has been going on for a week with more bees added every day.
Yes, it's called washboarding, and is very common. Maybe someday we will figure out why they do it. So far, no one has.
Thanx, I thought I was doing somthing wrong.
You'll also notice that they do this when its hot out moreso than any other time.
...JP
If they have filled out both boxes, or the bottom one & ~80% of the top one, it's time to either add a super, or replace some of the drawn frames with undrawn ones. If you replace just a few frames, be prepared to monitor & repeat frequently.