Is it possible to tell from the outside if a hive is in early stages of swarming vs normal bearding?
I keep the bees on this lady's farm and she sent me a picture. I'm a day away anyway so can't do anything really. But would ease my mind to know what I was seeing.
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Was it just that one hive?
Quote from: Nock on March 21, 2020, 06:56:26 PM
Was it just that one hive?
Yes. But the other boxes in that area are either empty or mating nucs
Edit: one of the nucs was bearding too. So it is that.
So: one way to tell is comparison to other hives. :)
Matt, will you be able to go inside those hives tomorrow and search for queen cells? I am curious per your question also. If you do go through them let us know what the inside situation is please sir. I caught a big swarm yesterday. They could be getting ready to swarm.
Phillip Hall
Bearding doesn?t mean they are swarming. It also doesn?t mean they are not swarming.
http://bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#bearding
Matt, did you get a chance to go inside and check this hive out? If so what did you find??
Phillip Hall
Is it possible to tell from the outside if a hive is in early stages of swarming vs normal bearding?
Short answer ..... NO