One or two colonies in this cutout

[montauk170]

Got a question... The cutout I did yesterday there are in two sections.

Circled blue is what I opened up first.

Circled red, I found later. You see the bird nest, there's old comb right behind it.
Then past that support beam, there is new comb they built.

So, is that one or two colonies?
Entrance seems to be the same big hole, but one went through cracks to the BLUE hive
and the old comb hive in RED walked through the bird nest.

[JP]

My vote is one colony.


...JP

[montauk170]

From the looks of those combs, how long would you guess these bees been there?
The owner said they have only noticed it about 2months or less. I say at least 6 months!
I found 3 hatched queen cells. There's black comb in the red circled section but I think
it's from a previous colony.

[G3farms]

I would also agree that there was a previous colony on the old black comb.

Six months ago would have put them moving in around December or January. Not real sure how your weather is in SF but do the bees swarm in Jan?

A big swarm can really build out some comb in short order, sounds like they were getting ready to swarm.

[JP]

Hard to say without seeing the entire thing but what is pictured is likely a few months old or so, my guess. Did you happen to ask them about the old comb?

I would ask them if they knew they had bees there before.


...JP

[iddee]

My guess is one colony. It looks like a swarm went to a deadout, found the birdnest and old, black comb, so expanded behind and to the side of it,

[gaucho10]

I wonder if someone previously sprayed the "red" section and killed the bees.  The "blue" section could be a new swarm that took over at a later time and re-used the old section.