Bees covering front of hive

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

RogerJ

New Bee
Joined
Mar 3, 2015
Messages
68
Reaction score
5
Location
Herefordshire
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
5
I've noticed in the last couple of days bees clustering in small groups on the front of the hive - and today, even though whilst the weather is warm it is by no means sunny, the bees are really covering the front.

I inspected last Wednesday and I saw no evidence of queen cells and I had one super on (above a QE) - though they were building comb on the bottom of the QE. I have just checked the super that is on and it is quite heavy (compared with very light last week) so I have put another super on the basis that the clustering on the outside was telling me they needed more storage space (and it was a quick and easy thing to do when the weather is looking like rain soon).

So is this normal behaviour or should I be double checking for queen cells (I was going to do do another inspection on this Wednesday)?
 
I've noticed in the last couple of days bees clustering in small groups on the front of the hive - and today, even though whilst the weather is warm it is by no means sunny, the bees are really covering the front.

I inspected last Wednesday and I saw no evidence of queen cells and I had one super on (above a QE) - though they were building comb on the bottom of the QE. I have just checked the super that is on and it is quite heavy (compared with very light last week) so I have put another super on the basis that the clustering on the outside was telling me they needed more storage space (and it was a quick and easy thing to do when the weather is looking like rain soon).

So is this normal behaviour or should I be double checking for queen cells (I was going to do do another inspection on this Wednesday)?

They will cluster outside to make room for honey ripening operations, especially if the hive is a bit short of space however, it could mean they are getting a bit twitchy so if i were you I'd get in there this evening or tomorrow.
 
Thanks for the quick reply.

I was hoping to do an AS when required to give myself an extra colony. Is it always the case that the bees will only swarm once queen cells have been formed or will they swarm before this if short of space?
 
One of mine was doing the same. Gave them another super yesterday and swapped to open mesh floor, no sign of any bearding today. No queen cells present yesterday either.
 
I have had the same in the past, my bees were just out enjoying the good weather.
 
Like this ?

Two of my hives looked like this on Sunday and Monday in all the hot weather, at times they covered almost all of the front of the hive .. there were bees out on the front of the hive overnight as well. I checked for queen cells - nothing found - but the hive was pretty full of bees and there was uncapped honey at the tops of the brood frames so I put a super on both of them.

There were still bees hanging around outside even with the supers on ..
 

Attachments

  • Bearding.jpg
    Bearding.jpg
    277.2 KB · Views: 45
Yes exactly like that. I have now also done an AS for the first time!!
 
Yes I did - I think I must have missed one previously but got away with it this time! I have noticed this morning that they are no longer clustering on the outside of the hive which they had been on the previous few days.

Thanks for everyone's help - much appreciated.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top