Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: ouluman on July 24, 2015, 08:55:57 PM

Title: Bees Outside the hive
Post by: ouluman on July 24, 2015, 08:55:57 PM
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. 
Title: Re: Bees Outside the hive
Post by: iddee on July 24, 2015, 09:29:03 PM
Yes, it's called washboarding, and is very common. Maybe someday we will figure out why they do it. So far, no one has.
Title: Re: Bees Outside the hive
Post by: ouluman on July 24, 2015, 09:53:13 PM
Thanx, I thought I was doing somthing wrong.


Title: Re: Bees Outside the hive
Post by: JP on July 24, 2015, 10:07:41 PM
You'll also notice that they do this when its hot out moreso than any other time.


...JP
Title: Re: Bees Outside the hive
Post by: Colobee on July 25, 2015, 11:22:43 AM
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.