Bees crowding entrance

[Pollybell]

5 frame nuc added to brood box only hive mid/late June. 10 frame now drawn 60% store 40% brood. Queen laying and all looks well. Noticed this evening that a lot of the bees are crowding around the entrance. Is this a sign of a lack of space and should I add a super to povide more room even though there is a couple of frames not yet drawn? I'm not looking to extract honey this year. Just wanting to build up a healthy hive for over wintering. Any advice to a novice would be appreciated.

 

[xray7]

pretty sure there is nothing to worry about. I doubt they need a super if they haven't drawn out all the BB frames.It wouldnt do any harm to add a super if you have one with drawn frames but you will need to remove it in another month when its time to prepare for winter e.g. treat for varroa and feed 18 kg sugar syrup.

 

[Pollybell]

Xray7, thanks for the assurance. I would prefer to hold off on the super if its not doing any harm as I would like to encourage all frames in the brood bax to be drawn. Thanks

 

[BeeNice]

Have a look inside and see whether the bees are crowded. If you have 10 frames full you will need to add a super. With the cool weather a lot of the bees are at home so giving more room is the only thing to do, the year is getting on but bees with no space will make room, ie QC and swarm. It's up to you, you need to work the situation as you find it. Hopefully you will get plenty of stores over the next couple of months, have a look around your area and see what the nectar flow is like with what plants are still out and what will be flowering soon. Good luck.
Steven

 

[enrico]

don't worry, this crowding of the entrance is normal. It happens more with some hives than others. I think it may be some type of temperature control. I have one hive that does it continually but none of my others do...
E

 

[Swarm]

You could consider shuffling the foundation frames inward to encourage drawing, too.

 

[richardbees]

Polly

Mine are the same - absolutely normal, a bit like holiday makers in bus shelters on the Esplanade in Skegness waiting for the weather to get better!

When the weather's hot (excuse me for laughing) you'll see them in a row, bums outwards, fanning their wings to aerate the hive.....and if there's no wind the whole area smells of honey!

richard

 

[sunshinemedic]

One of my hives has been doing this every evening since mid May. At first I thought they were overcrowded but several supers later they are still at it! No indication of swarming intent either.
I assume they are drying out the nectar and keeping the hive cool.

 

[Pollybell]

Thanks all for the comments. There was a large crowd outside the hive entrance at 9.30pm last night (15 degree air temp). So I have added a super and they are not crowding the entrance any more. Why don't the bees read the same text books as me on bee keeping and make life easy?

 

[Mike a]

If your hive looks close to this and every frame you lift out is solid with bees then add a super.

This picture was taken April 2010 and the colony had two national brood chambers both chambers were heaving with bees, they draw out and filled a super in just over a week with OSR.

 

[BeeNice]

Nice to see you have sorted the problem, you can give to much room, but giving to little is worse. Get another super ready just in case you need to expand again.
regards
Steven