Hi Stevo,
No I have not read that book yet but will order it today. It’s amazing watching the different behaviors. I did notice an increase of bees coming and going, most of them looked like they did their and were going out to hang out with their older siblings. Lol. I am only a month or so into beekeeping and I want to get a 2nd flow hive.
Thanks again,
Hi Peter,
So we have been watching our bees grow from a Half full nuc to a explosive 9 1/2 frames of completely full bees. For the past two days it’s been extremely hot and the bees were outside of the hive, I believe what they were doing was fanning to cool the hive down.
Then yesterday they were forming a small beard on the landing board, so I wasn’t sure if they were getting ready to swarm or if it was too hot so what I did was I open the hive a little later on in the day and found that the bees have been little busy bees filling out all of the frames so I hope we didn’t jump the gun but we put our flow Super on yesterday. If they keep it up we could have Honey by the end of July maybe sooner but I’m not gonna push it.
We finally found our queen, she looks much bigger than looking at pictures online of other queens.
One thing I’m not quite sure of is for the first time there were about 20 drones dead outside of the hive is that normal.
.
Hello Mike, I would suspect that your assessment that the hive was over heating inside is right and so they were bearding. Sounds eight to add the super now to give the bees more room to expand and to give them more work to do.
Bearding is something I take as a warning sign to figure out the cause of it happening. By far the two most common causes is the internal temperature of the hive is too hot or the colony has expanded so much they have run out of space in the hive. Bearding as an indicator or imminent swarming is only one of the indicators I need to check out, seeing it on its own to my thinking requires more checking as to the cause. and an inspection is needed.
Congrats on seeing the queen, a feather in your cap as becoming a better bee keeper.
A colony can decide that there is just too many drones in hive and refuse to let them back inside so they die outside the hive probably starving to death, such is life for a drone. This can be because of a dearth and because the drones don’t contribute in a major way to the expansion of the colony they are the more expendable. My thinking and from experience is that if your using foundation-less frames the bees will make more drone cells and so a hive will have more drones in it so when the time comes the colony decided to cull in a foundation-less hive the number of dead drones is greater.
Cheers
Thank you Peter. I do have a question when we are observing the bees from outside watching them do their orientation flights come in and out of the hive normally they won’t even act like we’re sitting there watching them, we are about 2ft or so away from the hive entrance. But the past two days A couple of them have been aggressive trying to I guess stingers Chasing us up the hill away from the hive one of them got into my wife’s hair yesterday but luckily didn’t stinger but kept us on the run.
Do you think them being more aggressive has to do with the outside temperature being in the 90s and humid?
Not sure if I mentioned it when we did the hive inspection on Sunday I did notice three cells that look like cups they were protruding mostly on the side of the frame but there was nothing in it that those be swarm cells? I should’ve taken a picture but my daughter was the and constantly running every time she heard a buzz.
Michael Smart,
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
The can become more defensive due to atmospheric conditions, but also if the nectar flow stops (some flowers cut off nectar at a certain time of day etc), and also if there have been any robbers around.
I find one or two will try to sting or chase me a day or two after manipulating the hive so sometimes they just hold a grudge haha.
Hi Stevo,
Thanks for your reply. They can hold a grudge for manhandling the hive, I learned that the first time I open the nuc, they were not very happy I got stung in my head.
Not sure if any robbing is going on not sure what I would look for. There was a ton of nectar when we inspected the hive the aggressive behavior was prior to that’s why I was wondering if temperature would have anything to do with it I know me as a human I get cranky when I’m overheating, then the wife cools me down.
Michael Smart,
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
With quiet bees you’ll get away with it most times but its really inviting the attention of curious guard bees. And its too close if they’re in a bad mood for whatever reason.
There is a number of things that can make a colony more defensive but I doubt a temp in the 90’s would be an issue unless there is also a thunderstorm in the area. My temps are over 90F and very humid for several months over my Summer which is also my wet season. Sitting only a couple of feet away in front of the hive the guard bees good trigger them to be more aggressive, more so if your wife uses a scented hair shampoo or hair conditioner.
Most bee hives will have a partly made queen cell or two, I call them ‘play cells’ as even if the bees want to replace the queen they will build new queen cells and ignore the play cells. I used to knock down play cells but they are rebuilt in a couple of days so now I leave them alone. My mentor when I began bee keeping had the opinion that it was like in human terms giving a dummy to a baby, they will suck on it and calm down even when they realize there is no milk to be had. His idea was that a play cell has a calming effect to the colony, it obviously serves some purpose as they will remake one if you destroy it. Worth keeping an eye on them when doing an inspection but don’t be shocked if they never get used seriously to produce a new queen.
Cheers Mike
Thanks everyone for your input and advice, this forum has been very helpful. I am sure I will have more question as we have added the flow super over the weekend.
So the past couple of days some our bees have been unusually aggressive, Chase me and my wife away from the hive I thought it could possibly be the temperature but as everyone here has pointed out that it’s very unlikely and that there is possibly robbing going on or something.
So today my wife stunk twice by our beautiful little furry honeybees while they were sitting on our deck the hive is about six or 7 feet from our deck and their flight path is to the right of the hive and we are to the left. So I asked my wife today since she is an behavioral analyst if she noticed anything different around the hive she told me no she didn’t the only thing she didn’t notice were these black wasps.
After she mentioned it I thought back to when we got chased away from the hive and I noticed about four or five of these black wasps hanging around the hive about 2 feet away.
Does anyone think it’s possible that these black wasps are the cause of this aggression and that our honeybees are protecting the hive? I have not noticed them on top of or trying to get into the hive but in very close proximity. I have never seen these types of wasps in our area since the last couple of days.
Any ideas or suggestions? I got this image off of the Internet but this is what they look like.
Looks like one of these:
Says that they feed on crickets etc but I suppose if there’s none around they could be taking bees.
It sounds likely that the wasps could be the issue Mike, it is likely the wasps are looking for food for their young so the bees are aware of what is happening and that the wasps are black, which bees are aggressive towards anything black, even my socks which they will attack relentlessly with lots of stings to my ankles. I’ve seen bees attack a black plastic bucket, I guess they were really hating black that day. I doubt the bees are attacking you but your more collateral damage from bees that are really worked up.
Cheers
Thanks Peter and Stevo,
I am going to see if I can find their hive or maybe buy a big fly squatter! I will keep you posted. On a different note, should I make a different topics every time I have a different question that doesn’t have to deal with brood inspections?
If it’s Sphex pensylvanicus they appear to be solitary wasps with underground nests so probably quite hard to locate.
They probably aren’t doing any harm to your bees and if anything they help keep other insects down.
You’re probably right I’ll leave well alone and see if they can all coexist together or just let them figure it out as long as they’re not attacking the hive. We will keep an eye on it
Michael Smart,
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
You should perhaps think of the topic titles as a way to help others. If you want to keep asking questions about your brood inspections, post it under the same topic. If you are worried about a wasp, perhaps make a new thread. If you have leaking frames, new thread. This isn’t quite like Facebook, but I prefer the system here. 
Thank you Dawn, appreciate it. That’s what I thought but didn’t want to make so many different ones but it makes sense it may help other people as well looking for that particular topic.
I am not a frequent flyer on Facebook. 
Michael Smart,
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
Thanks Stevo, that is Kodah my oldest one she is 6 now. All 3 are pure bred Siberian huskies Kodah the one on the left the one on the far right is Blossom she is 4 they are sisters and the one in the middle is Parker he is the youngest 2 and he is the nephew. Kodah and Blossom were stung by our honeybees two days.
This will be the first winter that we will hook all three of them up to our sled to go sledding.
Michael Smart,
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
