Replacing supers: Is this normal?

[Ben90]

This morning I was extracting a super of honey from my main hive in my garden, and once I'd finished I placed all of the frames back into the super, marched back out into the garden, and put it back on the hive. I then went back inside, and started putting the honey through a filter, and it was less than 10 minutes later that I looked outside into the garden and noticed the hive entrance had gone from having a couple of dozen bees around it to this. Bearded entrance, and probably a few hundred bees taking orientation flights at once. I figured that it's because they suddenly have space to fill with new honey, but I figured I'd ask and make sure this kind of behaviour isn't unusual in some way.

 

[enrico]

Or it could be a big bust up with robbers!
I put wet frames back on last thing in the evening to avoid this! If you just want the bees to clean the frames then only leave them on for 24 hours and then use clearer board again otherwise bees will start to refill frames.

 

[Finman]

.
Like Beeno says, evening is good to give the frames. I give a water mist on the extracted frames. I have noticed that it helps the bees clean the cells.
They start a huge traffic to get water.

 

[Queens59]

Put in an entrance block to help your hive protect its entrance - and next time replace the frames in the evening, so the other bees don't think 'Hey, PARTY - they have easy FOOD!!'

 

[nikca]

I did exactly the same a few days ago, with exactly the same results: only as I did all 3 hives at the same time it was unlikely to be robbing - unless they were all robbing each other! Seriously, there was no evidence of bees flying intra-apiary - I put the bearding down to the loss of space while the supers were off... these are strong colonies. Was similar the next day, but they have all been settled and back to normal for the last week.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I try to have spare drawn supers to replace the ones I'm taking at the time; saves an extra visit.

 

[Finman]

Put in an entrance block to help your hive protect its entrance -!!'

That is out of question idea. Beekeeping is not that difficult.

 

[Finman]

I did exactly the same a few days ago, with exactly the same results: only as I did all 3 hives at the same time it was unlikely to be robbing - unless they were all robbing each other! Seriously, there was no evidence of bees flying intra-apiary - I put the bearding down to the loss of space while the supers were off... these are strong colonies. Was similar the next day, but they have all been settled and back to normal for the last week.

Yes, life teaches even experienced beekeepers.

When out temps are over 20C, they are like mad to rob. They are ready like fire army. in 12C temp you need not to worry.

 

[MuswellMetro]

well we did our association apiary extraction yesterday and the supers went back on for cleaning in the late evening, and exactly a Finman said, the bees brought in water by the bucket load today

i leave my frames until they have repaired them, then place them above the crown board with 1" hole until they have dried them

 

[Ben90]

There were a few things that make me doubt it was robbing.

1) there is only one other colony in my back yard, which is a nuc, and I didn't see any increased activity from their entrance at the time.
2) the next nearest apiary from my back yard (to my knowledge) is about 3/4 mile away, and under 10 minutes for that kind of activity level seems unlikely if it's robbing.
3) most of the bees flying near the hive seemed to be taking orientation flights (you can see a large number of bees taking orientation in the photo I posted).
4) a lot of the bees bearding the entrance were fanning their nasonov gland.

 

[Finman]

.
If it was not robbing, then bees rushed to get drinking water. It is a huge traffic.

For decades I thought that they go to seek, where the honey quell is.
But when I started to spray water onto extracted combs, there was not such rush traffic.

I was just on my remote yard. I gove to 2 hives 2 extracted boxes of frames.
Then the riot was so big that I must leave the place.

 

[beeno]

This morning I was extracting a super of honey from my main hive in my garden, and once I'd finished I placed all of the frames back into the super, marched back out into the garden, and put it back on the hive. I then went back inside, and started putting the honey through a filter, and it was less than 10 minutes later that I looked outside into the garden and noticed the hive entrance had gone from having a couple of dozen bees around it to this. Bearded entrance, and probably a few hundred bees taking orientation flights at once. I figured that it's because they suddenly have space to fill with new honey, but I figured I'd ask and make sure this kind of behaviour isn't unusual in some way.

Hi Ben90,
I have not said anything on this thread yet! However, it looks perfectly normal to me. Your bad conscience for stealing their honey!