Swarm attached to the bottom of a hive

[cak29]

Hi all, we appear to have a swarm that has attached itself to the bottom of one of our hives, this is only a guess but does anyone have any better suggestions?

We thought we had a robbing situation earlier today as lots of activity with most bees trying to enter with no pollen sacks full and noticed a lot trying to fly under the hive (raised on bricks as legs). We have just looked and there is a clump of around 500+ bees on the floor hanging from the bottom of one of our hive.

Ideas/suggestions please!

 

[stilllearning]

is your queen clipped?
if yes then she has probably tried to swarm , cant fly and gone under the hive. I found one of mine last week which has been there for about 3 weeks, drawn comb and grubs in.

 

[Midland Beek]

1/ Maybe a swarm left with a clipped queen or one that could not fly well, or fly at all.

2/ Maybe a new queen on a mating flight that did not find her way home.

3/ Maybe just bees hanging outside the hive on a warm evening.

 

[For want of a better word]

3/ Maybe just bees hanging outside the hive on a warm evening.

on OMF ??? my NewZealanders do this... strange behavior,

 

[circe]

Last year a cast from my hive ended up under the OMF whilst the bees in the hive were waiting for one particular queen cell to hatch - they didn't want the VQ in the cast and marched her out of thehive. (and she became the best queen I have!)

 

[cak29]

Has just occurred to me, maybe they are my bees who couldn't get back in because of all the activity so decided to rest nearby.

No the queen is not clipped, in fact she only hatched about 2 weeks ago on this hive.

 

[MJBee]

As your queen only emerged 2 weeks ago the chances are that she lost her way on the return from an orientation/mating flight and has set up home under the OMF.

If you have a spare floor move the brood box onto it then gently turn the old floor over and you will probably find two or three combs. Remove these and look for the queen on each one. If you find her hold the comb against the brood frames and she should run down into the brood box where she should be. Shake all the bees into the brood box and replace on the original site.

 

[snoop]

I had a cast swarm do this last week , built comb under the floor , queen laying . I just put them in a nuc with a couple of litres of feed

 

[user 6228]

3/ Maybe just bees hanging outside the hive on a warm evening.

on OMF ??? my NewZealanders do this... strange behavior,

Buckfasts do it too. Fixed this by having a second mesh on the bottom face of the floor. Seems

 

[user 6228]

3/ Maybe just bees hanging outside the hive on a warm evening.

on OMF ??? my NewZealanders do this... strange behavior,

Buckfasts do it too. Fixed this by having a second mesh on the bottom face of the floor. Had a similar number of bees underneath queen still inside.

 

[ericbeaumont]

Derek has the solution: put the hive on a sheet of mesh and fit a block of wood to the rear floor opening.

My colonies would otherwise be under the floor until the frost kills them. One drawback with the OMF is that hive odour is easily transmitted through it. Another is that any varroa falling from frames-bees land back on floor-bees.

Of course, the posts discussing swarms and clipped or virgin queens still apply.

Eric.

 

[cak29]

Thanks all for your input. Will check today to see if they are still there!

 

[Mike a]

You say you had a swarm, was this from your hive or one that has flown in, the reason I ask is the red dot in the cluster of bees under the hive. My first thought was a 2008 queen, now I'm wondering if its just a gap through the small cluster?

 

[cak29]

I spotted the dot as well, most of the bees have gone now, we saw many of them fly in the entrance. The dot is the same colour as some of the pollen we have seen the bees collecting so I think it is just that.

They do keep you guessing !

 

[Mike a]

The dot is the same colour as some of the pollen we have seen the bees collecting so I think it is just that. They do keep you guessing !

I was convinced to start with it was a marked queen but the longer I looked at it I began to think it couldn't be. In the end I was 50/50.