Bearding or Swarming?

mroark · July 09, 2012, 12:10:02 PM

I took this pic at about 10PM.

AliciaH · July 09, 2012, 01:05:33 PM

That would be my guess!

Something I have tried that is working really, really well, is a "basement". Some of my friends call it a "rec room". Take a western (medium), place all new frames and foundation in it, then place the box between your bottom board and lowest brood chamber.

They won't draw it out, but it does give the foragers a place to hang out and reduces the congestion in the brood frames. Also helps with the ventilation. It won't completely stop swarming, but I've noticed a huge difference since I started using them.

Also, do you use screened bottom boards or screened inner covers?

mroark · July 09, 2012, 02:00:36 PM

Screened bottom board. They usually go back in in the day time but they are bearded even more this morning. Not many flying out to work either. This is my first seasons with bees.

This is what they're looking like right now.

and a video

Short Video

FRAMEshift · July 09, 2012, 02:28:02 PM

I also use screened bottom boards. I have to say, from your photos I don't see anything that suggests swarming. Looks like normal bearding to me.

BjornBee · July 09, 2012, 04:03:14 PM

Bearding at this time is not a result of congestion, which is mostly incorrectly associated with swarming.

Simply put.....when the temps rise, especially anything close to 90 degrees, the bees add to the temp. So some bee yells out......"Hey! It's too hot in here. Everybody out."

They are not hanging out on the front of the hive due to congestion. They hang out in attempts to control the temperature in the hive.

I've opened many hives with bearding to find the hive empty except for a few hundred bees. That compounds problems with grafting as there are no bees to tend to a recently placed cell bar, and the eggs dry out and you lose most of them.

And as for placing an empty box below the brood chamber with foundation.....you better have plastic foundation if you are going to do this in late summer. Once the summer solstice passes (and it has) and the flow slows, they will strip off the wax foundation. Here is a picture of what happens on the left side of this page: http://www.bjornapiaries.com/combinformation.html

There is only one way to know for sure if your bees are going to swarm. Open them up. Asking questions on a forum, posting pictures, and guessing......is not going to answer that.

mroark · July 09, 2012, 04:11:42 PM

This is my season with bees. When I open them up what do I look for? Queen cells? I was in there yesterday removing bur comb and what not. I didnt pull any of the frames in the lowest box for a look. Should I?

BjornBee · July 09, 2012, 04:59:34 PM

Quote from: mroark on July 09, 2012, 04:11:42 PM
This is my season with bees. When I open them up what do I look for? Queen cells? I was in there yesterday removing bur comb and what not. I didnt pull any of the frames in the lowest box for a look. Should I?

First....do not remove burr comb. Burr comb is built for different reasons. Sometimes for bee space filling due to wrong sized equipment, while other burr comb is for drone production, or even "ladders" from the bottom board to the botton of the frames. The bees place it for a reason. Cutting it out just means the bees will spend more resources and time building it back.

Yes, you would be looking for queen cells. Most queens cells are built on the bottom edges of the frames. Breaking apart the boxes and lifting them to see between the boxes usually allows you to see queen cells. But they can also be built just about any place in th hive.

mroark · July 09, 2012, 10:11:51 PM

So I should leave the bur comb they build on top of the frames that connect the bottom of one frame to the next? As well as the bur comb that connects the frames to the inner cover?

btw, it looks like every bee in the hive is outside right now. I dunno how i would even get in to do an inspection.

Finski · July 10, 2012, 12:53:36 AM

.
Hive is full of honey. Add boxes and extract capped honey.

.

Javin · July 10, 2012, 01:22:00 AM

I've noticed something similar to this, but imagine it 15 times worse. At one point I had (I estimate) over 20K bees "bearded" under my hive. I was SURE I was looking at a swarm. There were so many bees you could have easily scooped them off the bottom of the hive and they'd have been far more than I had when I bought the package.

However, when the temperatures dropped back down, they went back to the "normal" bearding that you're looking at now. What it means is that you've got a healthy hive, and they're hanging out outside to keep their body temperature from raising the inner hive temp above 95 degrees. I propped the top of my hive open (but not the inner cover) to allow them to ventilate. I've noticed that where there's a temperature drop, a LOT of them gather in that small opening to close it off, and regulate the temperature. When it's REALLY hot and humid, they'll beard like this, and many times worse. It's not swarming, it's just temperature regulation. So long as there's room for them to put honey and brood, they won't swarm (or haven't, so far.)

I even got so scared one time with the size of the "beard" (which was many times larger than this) that I broke the whole hive apart to see if they'd started building queen cells. Nothing of the sort. They had plenty of brood, pollen, and honey, but no queens. They were just hanging out on the front porch so the house didn't get too hot. Perfectly normal.

mroark · July 10, 2012, 01:18:43 PM

I got in there and took a look this morning. The bottom box appears to be empty, nothing but hive beetles an a few dead brood that appear to be partially out of their cells (their heads were sticking out). The 2nd deep is full of honey and the 3rd deep, which I placed on top a few weeks ago, hasnt really been worked too much.

This hive was doing great...

BeeMaster2 · July 10, 2012, 03:11:50 PM

Quote from: mroark on July 10, 2012, 01:18:43 PM
I got in there and took a look this morning. The bottom box appears to be empty, nothing but hive beetles an a few dead brood that appear to be partially out of their cells (their heads were sticking out). The 2nd deep is full of honey and the 3rd deep, which I placed on top a few weeks ago, hasn't really been worked too much.

This hive was doing great...

Sounds like your quit laying eggs. If you are in a dearth she is doing the right thing. Did you see the Q? Did you see a few eggs anywhere? Is there lots of pollen in the hive, is st being brought in? If there in no food coming in, they cannot and should not produce young.
Jim

mroark · July 10, 2012, 03:54:55 PM

gotcha. It really doesnt look like much is coming in at all right now. I didnt see the queen but I didnt look to hard. I've not had any luck spoting her yet and the are so many bees right now i doubt i'd have better luck.