Are the girls preparing to draw comb on the outside of hive?

[Dawn_SD]

@Zab

Hi fellow beek’s a question for all does it look like there preparing to draw comb on the outside of the hive?

I agree with @Dee, they are washboarding. They are not preparing to draw comb outside the hive, don’t worry. You just have a load of juvenile bees who are bored and just looking for something to do, so they dance - like human teenagers Here is a nice little video discussing it:

Bees Washboarding

@Zab

Also I have my screen cover in the bottom slot and my girls seem to get under it, is that surpose to happen?

You may have a defective SBB - I did. If the wires are slightly bent, the bees can get through it. I had to bend back and reposition about 20 or 30 wires. Here is the post:

Bees between the bottom screen and the pull out board

Now I think this is developing into an important issue. I just got my Flow hive yesterday, and on cursory inspection, everything looked fine. I had a few issues with no pilot holes and curvy rebates/rabbets, but the SBB looked OK to me from a distance. Today, I re-inspected my SBB in full daylight. To my mind, the gaps I see here are NOT bee-proof: [image] It might be worth a comment in the instructions to check this before installing bees @Cedar @beethinking I have some jewelers pliers, and …

Until you are able to take the SBB out and check it, I would leave the corflute slider in the upper slot, otherwise the bees may decide to use the rear of the hive as another entrance, and going through the screen will deprive them of a lot of pollen too.