Hello, I am new to this forum and to bee keeping.
I received my bees/queen last Friday.
Today I go in to check and see if my queen has been released and all is ok.
I have two hives. One behind my barn and one in front of my barn on opposite sides. In straight line (if barn was not there) about 50 yeards I'd suppose. Anyway, I can stand at the corner of the barn and in just right light conditions I am witnessing bees going back and forth between the two hives entering and exiting. Im thinking this is not normal. Will it straighten itself out or what do I need to do. For the last two days it's been a steady flow back and forth between the two hives.
Thanks for any information.
Derek
Reduce the entrance size to make it more defensible for the respective hives.
First, watch the entrance of both hive from up close. How are they acting. Is there fighting going on? Are bees on the front porch tugging at each other (fighting) or are they just walking into the hive and coming out and flying off (working hard). Are they coming out and climbing up high on the box and then taking off (heavy load of stolen honey) or just taking off (flying empty).
It is very hard to tell where the bees are actually going when in a cross pattern. I watch mine right in front of the hive and a lot of the time it looks like a bee comes in and then takes back off because there are so many crossing paths.
If you really think they are going from one hive to the other, sprinkle powdered sugar on the robbing bees as they come out of one hive and have someone look for white bees at the other hive.
Jim