Noisy bunch of bees

Linda M. · December 24, 2016, 12:15:17 PM

Hello,
I'm going through my second winter as a beekeeper with 14 hives. I have sugar cakes and quilt boxes on top of all of them. Yesterday it was a little warmer, around 40 deg and I thought I would just take a look inside to see if anyone was eating the sugar cakes. All looked good - no one up to the top yet, I didn't expect them to be I just wanted to check. The very last hive I looked at was odd. They where very active and noisy - I'm not sure if it was a queenless roar or what. This morning I went down to take a look and all was quiet....then I took the tie down strap off and banged the top a little on the hive and they were noisy again. None of the other hives did this yesterday...but I was trying not to disturb them. Does that sound like something may have happened to the queen?
Thank you for any input!
Merry Christmas!

Acebird · December 24, 2016, 12:59:57 PM

Very difficult to fix things in the winter without making matters worse so I leave them alone.

gww · December 24, 2016, 01:22:06 PM

I am a dummy with no experiance but did ask this same question on a differrent site. It might be queenlessness but I read also that when the bees are uncapping stores that they are also more noisy. They could have just been eating or moving stores. I know I can't do anything now anyway but am also just trying too learn what I see and hear might mean.
Good luck
gww

Hops Brewster · December 24, 2016, 03:33:28 PM

Quote from: Acebird on December 24, 2016, 12:59:57 PM
Very difficult to fix things in the winter without making matters worse so I leave them alone.

+1
This time of year nothing can be fixed. Relax, don't worry, have a toddy while reading your Bee Journal and enjoy your Christmas. Chances are, they are fine and will be there to greet you in spring.

Hops Brewster · December 24, 2016, 03:35:09 PM

BTW, Old beekeeper tradition is that it's bad luck to bother your bees at Christmas time.

Acebird · December 24, 2016, 08:35:50 PM

I don't bother my bees at Christmas time but I plan on extracting either Christmas day or the day after. Honey is in the warming stage and all the equipment was cleaned today.

BeeMaster2 · December 25, 2016, 05:10:59 AM

As mentioned, not much you can do to fix or find out what is going on. Did you remove the queen excluder in the fall? If so I would not worry about the queen. She is usually the last one to survive in the hive if the hive is not being distributed (inspected). I have seen bees go down to a few bees and the queen was still alive.
Jim

Linda M. · December 25, 2016, 12:24:28 PM

Yeah, I think you're right gww - I think they're just eating too. I took off the mouse guard and pulled all the dead bees out and didn't find a dead queen....so I'll assume she's still there. If I did find her dead I would do a newspaper combine tomorrow (when it's 50 deg) with another hive. Guess I just thought it was odd that they were so noisy and all the other hive were quiet.
I'm not superstitious Hops : )
I don't use queen excluders sawdstmakr.
Thanks guys!