Just curiosity

[user 21786]

So last night I popped down to my apiary to see how my girls are getting on with the start of the cold weather.... currently 5 degrees c here at the moment.
I never open my hives at this temperature so in goes my trusted endoscopy only to discover that my bees are clustering on the bottom of frame near the mesh floor rather than at the top ,,,, how bizzare ... 5 out of 30 hives all doing this ... just interested thats all anyone shine some light ???? No guessing if you know you know

 

[Erichalfbee]

That’s what they do and consume stores upwards.

 

[user 21786]

That’s what they do and consume stores upwards.

I always thought they would move up during cold weather and stay there ... ...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

only when they've made room

 

[B_north]

I always thought they would move up during cold weather and stay there ... ...

I believe they do move up, but very slowly. The cluster needs to start the winter at the bottom and it slowly ascends thru the honey stores till it ends near or at the top by spring. If they start at the top, they sometimes will not or cannot move down if the weather gets really cold.

I am happy right now when I look into my hives and cannot see any bees on the top of the frames and I need to pear way down between the frames to see the cluster.

 

[user 21786]

Brilliant I should be happy to ...however today its 20 degrees lol absolutely crazy uk weather at the moment

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Bees store food above them so at this time of year the hives will (should) be full, so the bees will not leave their brood which is under their winter stores which they will munch through over the coming months.
The hive is probably heavy?

 

[blackcloud]

I've been tricked before by a small colony that hid at the bottom-you would have been convinced they were all dead.By the end of April they were well into double brood