Agitated Bees

GSF · March 22, 2014, 10:59:17 PM

I've been thinking my bees were agitated because of being queen less or supercedure. However when I went through them yesterday I notice I had the inner cover turned over wrong and there was probably 30+ bees squashed. I scraped them all off before I put the cover back on. This evening I could actually get around the hives and not get stung.

Do you think this may have had something to do with it? I did notice yesterday that there were some eggs in the hives and that may have started a calming process as well.

capt44 · March 22, 2014, 11:39:30 PM

Hope the queen wasn't among the squashed bees.
I'd check them in a couple of days and check for eggs again.
Hope you find one egg per cell.
We're getting another cold snap tonight.
It'll be back in the 60's Wednesday.

sc-bee · March 23, 2014, 12:06:42 AM

Squashed bees I would think not a factor or I would stay in trouble :(

10framer · March 23, 2014, 01:11:23 AM

yeah, i squash some every time i close a hive or stack a super on. then again, some of my bees can be a little rough.

GSF · March 23, 2014, 06:02:26 AM

Hey Capt, the bees were from the time prior. I saw the queen this time and I put an excluder on top.

RHBee · March 23, 2014, 09:59:20 AM

And I thought I was the only bee squasher. I have found that it does spin them up a bit. Nothing long term though.

sc-bee · March 23, 2014, 10:12:57 AM

Quote from: RHBee on March 23, 2014, 09:59:20 AM
And I thought I was the only bee squasher. I have found that it does spin them up a bit. Nothing long term though.

It's not the squashed bees that upset them Ray. They hear you want to invade them with alien BUGS! :devilbanana:

GSF · March 24, 2014, 09:34:57 PM

Well a little update. During my breaks from my self appointed vacation work, I hung around the three hives to watch and to check for aggressiveness. I pretty much had free reign today. I even stood in the flight path, bees just dang sho don't look where they're going after they get in the zone. I told my wife I'm stepping out on a limb, but I'd bet all three new queens are laying now. It's such a huge noticeable difference in their demeanor to the good. Next time I go in I'll update on my early splits.