new bees

eddiedlzn · April 03, 2008, 02:49:55 AM

Hello everyone. I installed my 4 new packages on sunday. Today my only hive from last year was exploting with activity. There was no activity in the new ones. It was over 50 degrees and sunny so I opened one up and they were all clusterd together an not moving so I left it open to let the sun hit them for a while and they started moving a bit. I did not have much time to watch them because I had to got to work. It got very chilly the last few nights. The feeder cans were about three quarters when I hived them full so I figured I would let them finish it before I gave them the other feed I made for them, Is this normal bee behavor. Should I be worried and is there any thing I should do I was thinking of giving them some drawn out comb from my other hive. please give me some info

dlmarti · April 03, 2008, 03:07:26 AM

Not knowing the origin of the bees, I would have to guess they weren't prepared for the temp change.
It was probably 80 degrees two days ago for them.

eddiedlzn · April 03, 2008, 03:20:54 AM

Do you think they will be ok?

dlmarti · April 03, 2008, 08:39:04 AM

Quote from: eddiedlzn on April 03, 2008, 03:20:54 AM
Do you think they will be ok?

Probably but they will need some time to get used to the temps.

There are a lot of articles floating around, stating the need for northern bee keepers to use northern sources for their bees and queens. This might be one of them.

Cindi · April 03, 2008, 10:45:00 AM

Eddie, I don't think that you should have left that hive open, thinking that the sun would warm the colony. If anything, that opening of the colony let the warm air out that they had inside. Sometimes it takes quite a long time for the bees to warm up enough to get busy and out of the cluster. Never leave the hive open for an extended period of time thinking that the sun is warming them up, it is not, warm air rises and that warm air rose right out of the colony. Yes, they may have got busy when you did that, but maybe they were just getting busy so that they could warm up their hive as the heat escaped. Have a wonderful and beautiful day. Cindi

Kathyp · April 03, 2008, 11:32:52 AM

i still have my entrance reducers on the small hole and my boards in the SBB. even though our days are getting warmer, our nights are still very cold. give them time and they will probably be ok. just make sure they have food if they are not flying much.

acbs · April 03, 2008, 02:49:31 PM

eddiedlzn,

Quote from: kathyp on April 03, 2008, 11:32:52 AM
i still have my entrance reducers on the small hole and my boards in the SBB. even though our days are getting warmer, our nights are still very cold. give them time and they will probably be ok. just make sure they have food if they are not flying much.

I second all of kathyp's post. I still have all of my hives buttoned up for winter (entrance reducers, wrapped, and boards on SBB's) and haven't any expectations of unbuttoning them soon. Just make sure they can get to some food.

Not sure how far you are from me in central Illinois, but it seems spring is never gonna get here! We're about 20 miles SW of Springfield. Wouldn't worry about your bees not flying. Even though my stronger hives were flying some in that 50 degree weather yesterday, they weren't as active as they have been. I've got a few established nucs here in my yard that made it through the winter and have been active on good days. I even lifted the lids on the them and peeked in through the holes in the inner covers to make sure they were OK, because they weren't coming out at all. Inside they were all active, it just wasn't as good of a day in their opinion as it was in mine. There have been days that I would think the air would be full of flying bees when there have only been a few. I can certainly understand your concern, but they know what they're doing. The first of April is a little early to start in this area. Usually the 10th or after is better.

Another not so warm cloudy day with chance of rain again today and cloudy and not much warmer tomorrow. Temps to be in the mid 30's yet on Friday night. If you (and they) can just hang in there a couple of more days we're supposed to have a nice weekend in the 60's and a decent week to follow. A few frames of drawn comb would be good for them, but I'd wait till it was a nice warm, sunny day to add it.

Hopefully they'll be fine. Let me know how far away you are.

Arvin

eddiedlzn · April 04, 2008, 03:09:32 AM

I live about 100 miles west of chicago. I only opened one of the new hives for about 20 minutes. My hive from last year was rocking bringing in tons of pollenI was worried that they were dead. theu were like in suspended animation. no movement at all I was hoping to look and see if the queen was released. but I did not get a chance since they were clustered. Is it normal when they are clustered to appear lifeless. oh I just bought some of those plastic top feeders from dadant has anyone used them and are they any good?

Cindi · April 04, 2008, 09:55:45 AM

Eddie, oh there is so much to learn, I know, I am still in such big learning mode. You are telling us your experiences and asking questions, important and wonderful stuff.

About the bee cluster. I will try to explain really simply and basically to you what goes on with the cluster, so that you have a better understanding, it is important to understand what and why. When it is too cold for the bees to be moving about freely, they gather into a cluster to keep warm. The inside centre of the cluster is really warm, like about 25 degrees C and the outside is much more cool, the bees on the surface of the cluster will switch positions with the ones in the warmer part when they become too cooled, this is a continuous rotation, I would think it would be barely discernable to the human eye watching (but am not positive on that, just a thought). The bees don't move around much when in this clustered state. They are just keeping the inner core heated. It would appear pretty lifeless.

When it gets really really cold the bees vibrate their thorax, which generates heat, bees are pretty smart in how they manage and govern themselves.

I hope this may have cleared up the mystery that you feel with the cluster somewhat. If you need further explanation, do some studying on bee clustering, it is a fascinating part of the bees, along with all the other stuff.

Have you gone to Michael Bush's website yet to do some reading? If you haven't, treat yourself and go there and do some studying and reading. He has a wealth of knowledge there and it is simple to understand, he speaks to you like he was right there teaching you, and is a very powerful learning tool. Good luck Eddie, keep asking your questions, we are all in learning mode, and yes, have a wonderful and awesome day, Cindi

Michael Bush's website:

http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm