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irishguy said:
One thing I did notice while I was under the other hives, in my nuc it seems the bottom of some frames (maybe 4 or 5 thou couldn't see the rest) there isn't any capped SS or honey. The bees must have consumed it with all that rain weve had thou there was still a flow coming in. I'm confused!! Should I start feeding it again to fill in them gaps or just leave it? What I did notice is there's bees clustered between 7 frames, nearly the whole length of the NYC. ( nuc inside a hive, reduced down with some insulation)
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So ... there are seven frames in a full sized hive that has been dummied down ? Or are there more frames in this hive ? You've been feeding them rather a lot in the past and there's been good forage and reasonable weather until recently so they should have enough stores in there for the time being ... are you weighing or hefting the hives ? I wouldn't be giving them more syrup unless the hive feels very light ... if it's a well insulated hive they won't consume as much in winter as conventional ones and you have the option in early spring of feeding them fondant if they need it by then.

As for warming bees up in a beer glass and them not stinging ... there's something not right here ... are you sure they are not drones ? Or if they are workers .. did you find a queen ?
 
pargyle said:
As for warming bees up in a beer glass and them not stinging ... there's something not right here .
Click to expand...

Why is there something wrong? I have warmed up chilled bees in my hands without being stung many times, before popping them back into the top of a hive.

You can plainly see they are not drones from the photograph.
 
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Hivemaker. said:
Why is there something wrong? I have warmed up chilled bees in my hands without being stung many times, before popping them back into the top of a hive.

You can plainly see they are not drones from the photograph.
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with warming them up Pete ... just can't decide why they are there in the first place ... they would not normally hang about under the mesh floor for this length of time .. it doesn't sound right - his bees were busy flying - so why would these cluster under the hive for two days without a reason ?
 
pargyle said:
Nothing wrong with warming them up Pete ... just can't decide why they are there in the first place ... they would not normally hang about under the mesh floor for this length of time .. it doesn't sound right - his bees were busy flying - so why would these cluster under the hive for two days without a reason ?
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Disorientated, get it a lot with open mesh floors if returning bees can get in under the front of the hive, returning bees land on ground in front of hive, get chilled then crawl up to the mesh, get it a lot with those poly nuc boxes as well, if the front under the box is not blocked, quite big clusters of them that cannot work out why they can't get through the mesh floor, fixed those nucs to prevent this happening now.
 
pargyle said:
So ... there are seven frames in a full sized hive that has been dummied down ? Or are there more frames in this hive ? You've been feeding them rather a lot in the past and there's been good forage and reasonable weather until recently so they should have enough stores in there for the time being ... are you weighing or hefting the hives ? I wouldn't be giving them more syrup unless the hive feels very light ... if it's a well insulated hive they won't consume as much in winter as conventional ones and you have the option in early spring of feeding them fondant if they need it by then.

As for warming bees up in a beer glass and them not stinging ... there's something not right here ... are you sure they are not drones ? Or if they are workers .. did you find a queen ?
Click to expand...


Yeah 7 frames dummied down and bees between them all apart from the last wall. In saying that thou, the further away from main brood area the bees where less between frames but theres defo bees there. I'd say a 1/4 or more full of bees between last frame.

TBH I haven't been hefting that much but I've a fair idea of what it feels like with good stores etc...


You say don't feed, that's sound, I won't but they have defo consumed more than I'd thought they would since last time I checked it.

Here pic of the bees. Defo not drones.

View attachment 11011

View attachment 11012

View attachment 11013
 
Is it this hive ?

If so, then Hivemaker is probably right on the money as they could easily miss the entrance .. Best put something under the hive at the front to stop it happening again ...

I'd put a temporary landing board in front of the entrance and tip your warm bees out onto it tomorrow once the day has warmed up a bit and see if they head home ...

Good luck, you're going to a lot of trouble to give them a chance.
 
pargyle said:
Is it this hive ?

If so, then Hivemaker is probably right on the money as they could easily miss the entrance .. Best put something under the hive at the front to stop it happening again ...

I'd put a temporary landing board in front of the entrance and tip your warm bees out onto it tomorrow once the day has warmed up a bit and see if they head home ...

Good luck, you're going to a lot of trouble to give them a chance.
Click to expand...


Yeah that's the one (on left) I've already blocked off the front earlier but will put landing board on tomorrow Luke you suggest and keep an eye on them.

Would it have anything to do with me putting mouse guard on?
 
irishguy said:
Yeah that's the one (on left) I've already blocked off the front earlier but will put landing board on tomorrow Luke you suggest and keep an eye on them.

Would it have anything to do with me putting mouse guard on?
Click to expand...

Who knows ?... with entrances like that the bees often just fly straight into the entrance slot so the mouseguard might have distracted them a bit or they might just have been a bit heavy and ended up on the ground beneath the hive as Pete suggested and then crawled upwards to the floor following the pheremones ...

So .. are you on double brood on that hive then .. I thought it was a super you had underneath the brood chamber not another brood box ?
 
irishguy said:
Would it have anything to do with me putting mouse guard on?
Click to expand...

Possibly. Changing anything can confuse returning foragers the first time, they don't recognise the hive / entrance as it was when they left so they do a quick 'double take' before landing. If they've drifted underneath then they will have smelt and recognised their own hive, but being tired from flying and then possibly getting cold all they want to do is climb up into the cluster, but that damned omf is in the way. The colder they get the less they want to fly, but with only a handful outside the hive they aren't going to generate much of a heat-ball.

The best treatment would be to just fish them out and drop them in the entrance so they can rejoin the cluster. That's another advantage of having a landing board, it makes that easier.
 
pargyle said:
Is it this hive ?

If so, then Hivemaker is probably right on the money as they could easily miss the entrance .. Best put something under the hive at the front to stop it happening again ...

I'd put a temporary landing board in front of the entrance and tip your warm bees out onto it tomorrow once the day has warmed up a bit and see if they head home ...

Good luck, you're going to a lot of trouble to give them a chance.
Click to expand...


No its super underneath, that pic is when I was doing the unite. That was quite a few weeks ago and remember, I moved them from that location a few inches a day thou haven't moved them in about 2 weeks or more.
 
irishguy said:
No its super underneath, that pic is when I was doing the unite. That was quite a few weeks ago and remember, I moved them from that location a few inches a day thou haven't moved them in about 2 weeks or more.
Click to expand...

Ahhh yes ... I'd lost track of your movements ... I think we may have sent everyone else off to bed now ... P
 
I went out Sunday to put bees back but it was a terrible day with high winds and bees weren't moving, today the weather was better but I didn't get the chance to do it.

I don't know if this will benefit the bees but I put a squeezed ball of wax I had left over from extracting honey, the wax was sticky to touch so I'm wondering will they feed on this.

Tommorw I'll get a chance to put them back seeing as the weather will be better. Its a mixture or sunny spells and cloudy but its saying 10 degrees. Any tips to heat the bees up if they're still clustering. My house is about 150-200m away from hive.
 
Most bees died and the others that lived managed to get into hive. The bees from the hive actually started to move some of the bees from the entrance and even one or 2 that was moving abit. As for the bees inside the hive, they where back to bringing in more pollen and where quite busy for period's earlier and a few wherent happy I was there
 
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