Are my bee's overheating?

[40-ODD]

Hi, I've got a hive set up in my garden. Woke up to a cloud of bee's swarming around. They grouped up on a near by tree. So I put them in a nuc box I had lying around. Had a quick glance inside my hive and it was almost empty (both supers empty and a pretty quiet brood box) so took it they had swarmed from there. Went for a cold shower as I was over heating in my suit lol. When I came back out they had left the nuc box but my hive was looking pretty busy at the entrance again, so had a look back in it - and it's full again (both supers have bee's and brood box is ramjam). What is going on here - I'm pretty new to this. Are they too hot or are they attempting to swarm? The hive is in full sun for most of the day. Gonna have a look through it and see if the original queen is in there when it cools a bit, just wondering if someone more experienced can shed some light on this. They looked busy and I took a split 2 weeks ago from it. Split is doing good. Cheers.

 

[For want of a better word]

Do you have an open mesh floor?
Bees seem to have enough room but would they benefit from brood + 1/2 ?
If on solid floor ... remove any entrance block so they can ventilate efficiently....
It has been hot over the last few days.

Chons da

 

[Swarm]

If the supers are full of bees, give them another one. What's your flow like? Mine are dropping nectar in any available cell at the moment.

 

[40-ODD]

Yes mesh floor. I have a brood box pretty full of brood and bee's but there is room to lay, one super they have drawn out and are rapidly filling, and another super they have just started drawing after adding this past week. The supers are not as busy as the brood box though. Maybe move the queen excluder up above one of the supers? The one being drawn? Keep the one half full of nectar up top? I have got more supers etc on way but probably a week away from delivery. My marked queen is still in the brood box too. Much thanks for the help.

 

[40-ODD]

Just don't understand why they all swarmed out, only to go back to where they came from. Is this a thing? Do they practice swarming? There were no swarm cells or cup's in the brood at last inspection, maybe what looks like the start of one today though.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

you said you split them a while ago - did you leave the queen in the hive that has 'swarmed' or is she in the other half?
When you looked inside earlier, did you see any queen cells?

 

[40-ODD]

The queen stayed in this hive. Might have seen the start of 1 queen cell earlier. Will have another look tomorrow.

 

[bobba]

I saw a you tube video in witch Mike Palmer mentioned bees absconding in the heat. He said they do not swarm in a tree, but all just fly off.

4.35

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8fVRy_88IM

 

[40-ODD]

They were airborne for about 5 minutes, then clustered on a tree about 15 feet away. As soon as I put em in the nuc, my GF said they were all flying back to the hive, but I thought she was just being stupid lol. Do you think the queen just didn't leave the hive in the first place? Or could it have got too hot in there, so they all bailed out till it cooled down? Pretty strange.

 

[beeno]

I saw a you tube video in witch Mike Palmer mentioned bees absconding in the heat. He said they do not swarm in a tree, but all just fly off.

4.35

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8fVRy_88IM

Thanks for showing a thread from the man himself as this was my way of thinking.

 

[beeno]

They were airborne for about 5 minutes, then clustered on a tree about 15 feet away. As soon as I put em in the nuc, my GF said they were all flying back to the hive, but I thought she was just being stupid lol. Do you think the queen just didn't leave the hive in the first place? Or could it have got too hot in there, so they all bailed out till it cooled down? Pretty strange.

What you do today is to find the queen and put her on the frame she is on into a nuc box. Then you go through the brood box brushing bees of each frame into brood box or blowing gently on the bees to make them move away so that you get a clear view of all parts of the frames looking for QCs. If you shake the bees off you damage QCs. The colony will go again. The Q is not the first one out in a swarm - she is a laggard. You may have collected them before she joined the swarm cluster in the tree, as happened to me once. In the morning my box was empty with the QX on. Good luck.