Hello Everyone,
This is my first post here, so apologies if this is the wrong place.
I am a first time bee keeper as well.
Last Sat 22 May, I purchased two packages of bees from Mike Roberts of Easy Bee Products in Gloucester.
These consist of a blue plastic box with 3.5 lbs of bees, a mated queen in a cage & a bottle of syrup.
Later on on about 8:30pm I shook these packages of bees into two hives in my garden One a modified dadant & the other a langstroth variant from modern beekeeping (polystyrene).
Both hives have brood bodies full of foundation wax & an empty super ontop containing feeders of syrup.
Checking on Monday both hives were very active.
At the same time I removed the feeders and empty super.
Unfortunately the bees had created a lot of large comb on the roof of the MD hive and as a result of lifting the roof a clump of bees dropped onto the floor.
(Same thing happen with the other hive, but not so many bees fell on the floor)
Since then this small clump of bees has climbed onto the side of the MD hive and grown in size every day. They stay out all night even when in rained hard.
Bees fly in & out of the MD Hive, some even land on the cluster after foraging and then then fly into the hive after (but not many).
Does anyone know quite what is going on?
I'm wondering if I dropped the queen on the floor and this is why the cluster is on the outside of the hive.
Any tips or help would be wonderful.
Here's a link to some pictures I've taken of the cluster:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ocpsteve/BeeClusterMay2010?feat=directlink
Many Thanks
Steve
BTW: The queens in both hives were released from there cages by the Monday inspection.
This is my first post here, so apologies if this is the wrong place.
I am a first time bee keeper as well.
Last Sat 22 May, I purchased two packages of bees from Mike Roberts of Easy Bee Products in Gloucester.
These consist of a blue plastic box with 3.5 lbs of bees, a mated queen in a cage & a bottle of syrup.
Later on on about 8:30pm I shook these packages of bees into two hives in my garden One a modified dadant & the other a langstroth variant from modern beekeeping (polystyrene).
Both hives have brood bodies full of foundation wax & an empty super ontop containing feeders of syrup.
Checking on Monday both hives were very active.
At the same time I removed the feeders and empty super.
Unfortunately the bees had created a lot of large comb on the roof of the MD hive and as a result of lifting the roof a clump of bees dropped onto the floor.
(Same thing happen with the other hive, but not so many bees fell on the floor)
Since then this small clump of bees has climbed onto the side of the MD hive and grown in size every day. They stay out all night even when in rained hard.
Bees fly in & out of the MD Hive, some even land on the cluster after foraging and then then fly into the hive after (but not many).
Does anyone know quite what is going on?
I'm wondering if I dropped the queen on the floor and this is why the cluster is on the outside of the hive.
Any tips or help would be wonderful.
Here's a link to some pictures I've taken of the cluster:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ocpsteve/BeeClusterMay2010?feat=directlink
Many Thanks
Steve
BTW: The queens in both hives were released from there cages by the Monday inspection.