A little reassurance please

[Rickmb]

Hello all. As some of you know I recently acquired a nuc and moved them into a full size national hive about two months ago. . The brood box is pretty much full and they are beginning to draw out a super, last week's inspection I was concerned at the lack of stores, lots of bees and brood but only wax in the super and the stores in the brood box reducing since last check so I started to feed them syrup three days ago a litre at a time, they have taken the full litre each day and today on the third day when I opened the hive to refill the feeder the bees seemed very short tempered. I tried to brush them away as they were walking up the side of the feeder and I didn't want them to fall in. The brush was attacked with bees trying to sting it. Also had numerous bees checking me out. Zig Zagging infront of my face, is there somethinf wrong with them or is this a symptom of them being hungry? It was a warm day today so I would assume they had a good day foraging, not sure why the attitude, I'm due an inspection tommorow but the number of bees is still climbing rapidly and if they are still grumpy tommorow ( they have never the calmest of bees local beekeeper rated them a 6) I don't fancy bothering them tbh

 

[gregior]

Opening the hive up every day certainly doesn't help, a bad flow,poor weather and wasps can also make the bees moody at this time of year.

 

[Rickmb]

Thanks gregior I only remove the roof to fill the feeder it's on top of the crown board so not disturbing the interior too much I didn't think? . I have not seen any wasps around but there seems to be more bees around the entrance today although that could be down to there being more bees in general. I'll watch them a little tommorow see if I see anything going on. Thanks!

 

[BeeJayBee]

Check for robbing, and perhaps reduce the entrance?

 

[Millet]

I'm new to this bee keeping lark but i only open up every 7 /10 day's .. i don't really think there's any benefit in opening more regular when they are struggling to live.

 

[enrico]

When you are opening to feed you don't go through the same motions! Did you let them know you were coming or did you just open the roof and surprise them? A puff of smoke helps. Lift the lid and let them settle! You give them food then you start messing with it so they are naturally defensive. Think about it.....be gentle and let them know what you are doing. It does help honestly!
E