Bees under sbb

Gerald in Ga · July 25, 2007, 05:25:21 PM

I did a search but could not find anything about this. Why do the bees get under the bottom of the sbb. I have screened ventilation on the top cover to help. Thanks for any information. 8 day old bee helper.

tillie · July 25, 2007, 05:28:22 PM

What are they doing under there?

When I had a robber screen on my hives, the bees were passing nectar through the SBB to the bees inside the hive. I found this out by sticking my camera under the hive and snapping a picture and then looking at it on the computer!

Linda T in ATlanta

KONASDAD · July 25, 2007, 05:30:48 PM

you might have it on backwards. If you are using SBB over a traditional bottom board, the BB may be upside down and the spacing is messed up and the bees are lost. Or its a few foragers lost and they will straighten it out. If the number of bees keeps increasing, a problem. If its a few and they are lost, they will figure it out by nitefall.

Gerald in Ga · July 25, 2007, 05:51:23 PM

Thank you for the replys. No KONA I don't have it upside down. It's from Brushy Mountain and the brand is facing up. I do however have the entrance reducer on with the small opening instead of the wider opening. Would this have something to do with it? I'm stumped. I keep the plastis slide in sheet out until I do a mite count and I have to brush the bees off. They do not enjoy that too much. If I don't see all of them, I find them dead in the pam spray the next day as there is not enough room for them to get out. I don't like killing the bees. Thanks again.

Moonshae · July 25, 2007, 09:40:11 PM

As long as they go back out, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Seems odd, though, that they keep going in there. You could block the entrance to the under-screen area when your tray is in there so they don't get stuck. If you still get bees in there, something somewhere else isn't aligning properly.

Kathyp · July 25, 2007, 10:14:03 PM

why is the entrance reducer on? did you use powdered sugar before your mite count?

Michael Bush · July 25, 2007, 10:31:42 PM

Sometimes they are just bearding and hanging out to stay cool. Sometimes they are confused and can't figure out how to get in.

tillie · July 25, 2007, 10:47:05 PM

In Augusta it's at least as hot as in Hotlanta - Unless you are having a robbing problem, you could probably take off the entrance reducer. I leave mine off entirely until winter unless there's a problem.

Linda T in HOTlanta

amandrea · July 25, 2007, 10:51:07 PM

My SBB sets on a bottom board and I have a tray inbetween that I slide out. Every time I do I find lots of balls of pollen. The only way the bees can get this pollen back, and it is a lot, is to enter under the SBB or wait for me to carefully pick it all up and put it in a plstic cap that I slide into the hive.

Michael Bush · July 25, 2007, 11:43:26 PM

I've never seen the bees pick up the dropped pollen on the bottom. They just leave it for the wax moths, apparently.

Gerald in Ga · July 26, 2007, 12:13:38 AM

Kathyp,
I just got them 8 days ago from Atlanta out of 5 frame nuks. The man said he would just leave the reducer in till they got built up enough. Yes, I did a powdered sugar dust off.

Moonshae,
They cannot get in with the tray in place. They get under there while it's out and I have to move them to put it in.

Should I pull the reducers, or turn them to the wider opening? One only has 6 frames being used and the other only has 5 frames being used.

Thanks for the replies, I'm still a little new at this. All of my information is from reading bee books and these forums.

Kathyp · July 26, 2007, 01:34:01 AM

just curious about the reducer. they might be a little toasty with the bottom in and the entrance reduced, also wondered if they were ending up under because of a traffic jam at the front door?

might they be after the PS if it was dropping under hive? something must draw them under.....

Erik T · July 26, 2007, 02:14:27 AM

I had the same problem with some newly installed frames & bees from a nuc. About 2 dozen bees hung out underneath the screen all hours of the day and night. I believe they were confused.

I carefully brushed them off and quickly closed up the SBB. After leaving it shut for a few days the bees pretty much stopped hanging out under there.

Once in a while I still get a couple of bees that hang there but they don't stay.

JP · July 26, 2007, 06:11:45 AM

Gerald, I know you've had a bunch of responses but I thought I might chime in here as well. I have seen what you described , "bees on the underside of sbb". I have seen this on newly established hives that, in my opinion, which parallels what Michael Bush said, are bees that are confused, and just didn't make it back into the hive. They of course want to be in the hive but didn't quite make it in because of them not quite understanding that the sbb is indeed a barrier. The squares allow lots of ventillation and odors to permeate through. In their need to get inside, they frantically wound up where they thought they might get in. Now, also, the reducer could have had something to do with this. Hope you removed it by now. Also, is this a package install? Sory if I didn't see this referred to or not earlier. If so, was wondering why you were treating for mites already? I would allow them to get situated, stress free, before doing any treatments, unless they were overrun with mites when you got them.

Gerald in Ga · July 26, 2007, 09:18:55 AM

Kathyp,
No problem, I was wondering if I should leave the reducer in that long myself. They do look jammed up at the entrance.
They have cleaned all of the powered sugar up.

Tillie,
Yes Ma'am it is hot in Augusta.

Eric T,
Thanks, I'll try this.

JP,
I got these already established in nuks. I put the tray in with pam sprayed on it for 24 hours last Wednesday and checked on Thursday at the same time. I counted 30 -35 on each tray so I dusted them as I have read.

Michael Bush,
Thank you for the reply. I have noticed that about what looks to be 40 or more grouped around the entrance at night. I'll try these suggestions and see what happens.
Do not be surprised when I ask more questions.

Thank you all for your help.

Gerald in Ga · July 26, 2007, 11:31:33 AM

I have another question please. What would robbing look like?

KONASDAD · July 26, 2007, 11:46:26 AM

Absolute chaos w/ bees attacking one another. Look for bees fighting at entrance board and on grnd close by. If its just bees circling everywhere, thats orientation flights which can look chaotic. If you look closer however, you'll see patterns of circling flights. Robbing is also accompanied by a very audible buzzing of bees, sounds angry in affect. Orientation flights are quite.

Gerald in Ga · July 26, 2007, 02:47:12 PM

Thank you KONASDAD,
I don't have that. I just wanted to get an idea of what to expect. That should be easy to spot.

Michael Bush · July 26, 2007, 09:57:42 PM

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