strange bearding

garys520 · August 10, 2011, 05:15:27 PM

One of my 4 hives is always in a state of bearding. Flow or no flow, dry or humid, rain or shine they are piled 2 and 3 deep on the front of one of the lower deeps. None of the other hives will beard at all. I've been a beekeeper for five years and this one really puzzles me. I did shake a laying worker hive in front of all of my hives, but I think most of the bees when in the one that beards all of the time. The hive is really doing well other than girls on their "front porch" hanging around. Any thoughts?

kbee · August 10, 2011, 05:25:35 PM

do you have screen bottoms? enough air flow? they could just be getting to congested.
are they shaking like they got into some pesticide or some other crap someone is spraying ?

sc-bee · August 10, 2011, 06:17:36 PM

Prop a small stick @ the back of the cover for venting ---- if they are vented and have room (not congested) and still beard don't fret.
If you think most of the bees from the shake out went to this hive check to make sure they have room.

garys520 · August 10, 2011, 07:24:10 PM

The hive has a Screened Bottom board and the top is propped open for extra ventilation and I added an extra super for the bees. No signs of pesticides, the girls seem healthy. Did a mite drop text last week and the count was very very low.

iddee · August 10, 2011, 07:32:31 PM

I love a bearding hive. Get rid of the rest and keep that one.

Michael Bach · August 10, 2011, 08:23:11 PM

Quote from: iddee on August 10, 2011, 07:32:31 PM
I love a bearding hive. Get rid of the rest and keep that one.

Ditto

I have a couple hives that are all clumped up every afternoon. I did an quick tilt and look inspection to look for any queen cells hanging below the bottom bars....none.

Those two hives are jam packed with bees. Very healthy hives with lots of honey being put up.

FRAMEshift · August 10, 2011, 09:52:28 PM

Quote from: garys520 on August 10, 2011, 05:15:27 PM
One of my 4 hives is always in a state of bearding.

Does the beard disappear during the day? I have a couple of hives with bees clumped up all day, every day. They don't do anything at all.

sc-bee · August 10, 2011, 10:23:15 PM

Nothing for them to do.

WWWard · August 22, 2011, 03:02:14 PM

I had the same problem with one of mine bearding. Checked for swarm/queen cells and nothing, but when I opened the hive to check it was very full of bees and the temp has been in the 80s here. Cleaned the bottom board, proped the top, and opened up the enterence. The show went away. My kids are not happy about it.