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clump of bees under hive on this warm day
Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 6:11 pm
by jpcows
I have a guess but I wandering if anyone has seen bees aCT like this. I checked my hives today and found bees coming and going as expected, but a small group werected on the ground. They looked like young workers who did not know how to fly well. I checked them at dusk and say this. I moved these clusters to and empty nuc. Till I get some advice. See photos.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sazjwp8pxy942 ... 1.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f2g1tcgb8g4h9 ... 2.jpg?dl=0
Re: clump of bees under hive on this warm day
Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 6:21 pm
by ski
I would check to see if there is a queen in that group. If no queen I would dump them back into the hive you think they may have come from.
If you find a queen I would have done the same thing you did by putting them in a nuc and maybe adding some house bees from another hive with a frame of honey.
Re: clump of bees under hive on this warm day
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 5:22 pm
by ski
JP,
What did you decide to do?
Re: clump of bees under hive on this warm day
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 6:23 pm
by mike91553
I would have opened the hive to see if there was a cluster inside. It could be that robbing got so bad that the colony gave up and went outside. I have seen that happen in the summer with up to a couple lbs of bees.
Re: clump of bees under hive on this warm day
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 7:47 pm
by ski
Mike,
That's an interesting thought. But I would have expected to hear about fighting or dead bees if it was robbing. But looking inside to make sure there is a cluster sure makes sense.
Re: clump of bees under hive on this warm day
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 11:59 am
by jpcows
I would like to thank everyone for their helpful advice. I have tried to answer all your questions:
1 Bee were clumped in groups as it got colder that evening but no queen was with them
2 The only dead bees were the ones I was not able to put in a nuc and found the next morning
3 I dumped the bees from the nuc back in the hive the day. I expected to find a cold lethargic group of bees, this was not the case. I had to put my bee suit on. The guard bees were very protective.
My hive is very healthy and will may have to split it in the spring.
What kind of pollen are the bees finding this time of year? I just went out to see if their is any activity this moring and several are flying in with pollen baskets are full and yellow?
Thank again
Re: clump of bees under hive on this warm day
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 3:06 pm
by Jacobs
I'm not sure what they are finding--some camellias may still be in bloom. Mahonias are starting to bloom, but most are still in the budding phase. My bees are still going heavily to the spent brewers yeast mix, so they are not finding quantities of pollen that they would like to have.
