This hive was the one I first- cutout this summer in a dresser on my porch which I moved into a box, (which is sitting on top of the original dresser- on my porch). It is a wide open entrance across the landing board which I will soon be restricting. I vapor treated with Oxalic Acid about 5 days ago for mites with no ill effects except for two bee’s finding a way into my bonnet and leaving a house warming gift above my ear lol. Question: This past week the bee’s have been congregating at the entrance throughout the day. The weather is still in the 80’s-90’s F all week and nights in the high 60’s to low 70’s F with more cloud cover. Might this be due to weather? I added a honey super about 6 weeks ago when my bottom box was about 90% full. Also these bee’s are more aggressive than my other hive and are probably somewhat Africanized. I’m going to try and change out queens next spring. Back to the board crowding. Any idea’s. Thanks everyone. P.S. the white pins held on a narrow band of sand paper that helped the bee’s exit the hive upside down when I first put them in. They were slipping around until I put it on. They pretty much ate away most of it so I removed it and left the pins for “landing lights” which they must use since they all pretty much land on the board just below the two pins. Oh, one more thing. If I could get another hive to build queen cells, is it too late in the year to switch out queens? Lots of questions haha
Probably. That is pretty warm weather. They are not quite bearding, but they are thinking about it.
Queen breeders in our area ship out their last queens at the end of September. Those queens would have mated 3 weeks previously for many breeders - they keep them for a while to ensure that they are laying nicely. That means that the queen cells were made almost 6 weeks before shipping. If the queen breeders think it is too late to continue breeding, it is probably too late for you too.
However, if you want a mated queen, these guys still have some available shipment dates, and their queens are very good:
https://wildflowermeadows.com/product/ups-next-day-air-shipping/
How many times have you done this, Dusty?
If you have brood you have to do this three times at five day intervals.
If you know all this then apologies…just ignore me
No I didn’t know that. Thanks.