sealing up inner cover

[ayyon2157]

     For the first time, I have found the oblong hole in the inner cover sealed shut by the bees.  This of course renders the upper entrance useless. Why?

     My bees are small, and constantly robbed by my neighbor's bees, who seem to regard my hives as the first place to look for honey and pollen.  I leave the restriction in the lower entrance in place. They did enlarge a crack by widening it into a slot about 2 1/2 long and use both openings.

     I only had two hives, and one died off late last spring, but before it died sealed up the hole in the inner cover.  The remaining strong hive has the opening sealed also.

any explanations?

ayyon2157

[Bee-Bop]

My hives seem to all close the inner cover slots closed to about a 3/8 hole some a little larger.
HOWEVER I have 1 hive that insists on completely closing theirs up. All hives are next to each other, basically same size.
BEATS ME !

When ever I see it I use the handy dandy pocket knife, in a day or too its closed back up, out again comes the pocket knife.
This is a con-tinuse game we play, the score is still even !

Bee-Bop

[Joelel]

     For the first time, I have found the oblong hole in the inner cover sealed shut by the bees.  This of course renders the upper entrance useless. Why?

     My bees are small, and constantly robbed by my neighbor's bees, who seem to regard my hives as the first place to look for honey and pollen.  I leave the restriction in the lower entrance in place. They did enlarge a crack by widening it into a slot about 2 1/2 long and use both openings.

     I only had two hives, and one died off late last spring, but before it died sealed up the hole in the inner cover.  The remaining strong hive has the opening sealed also.

any explanations?

ayyon2157

Some breed of bees use alot more propolis then others. They use propolis to seal holes and cracks.We have a hive of starline that seals every crack and the inter cover hole.We have a hive of Cordovan Italian and they don't seal much of anything. One of your hives most likely has more of one breed of bees then the other.

Different traits in different breed of bees.Read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckfast_bee

[BeeHopper]

     For the first time, I have found the oblong hole in the inner cover sealed shut by the bees.  This of course renders the upper entrance useless. Why?

     My bees are small, and constantly robbed by my neighbor's bees, who seem to regard my hives as the first place to look for honey and pollen.  I leave the restriction in the lower entrance in place. They did enlarge a crack by widening it into a slot about 2 1/2 long and use both openings.

     I only had two hives, and one died off late last spring, but before it died sealed up the hole in the inner cover.  The remaining strong hive has the opening sealed also.

any explanations?

ayyon2157

wow, I find that interesting , is it propolis or burr comb (wax) that they sealed the hole up with. I've been keeping Bees for 4 years now and I've not seen that happen here in NJ.  ( I keep Italians )

[BjornBee]

Why shouldn't they?

Studies have clearly shown that bees prefer sites with lower entrances, no light from above, etc. And there are reasons for this to include protection from the elements, retention of heat, etc.

If it were not for a beekeeper opening up the hive every now and then, bees will propolise everything very tight.

Maybe some bees close off entrances due to moisture concerns....many times of which are beekeeper induced. And so the bees show a capacity to adapt and overcome obstacles presented to them.

[annette]

I remember Michael Bush telling me that it is ok for them to seal up the top entrance, but he said I should make sure it is slightly open. I have one hive that seals it up except for a little opening.

[Michael Bush]

It is their instinct to seal up any source of light.