Hive Check - pre-swarm?

[jdinkel]

Hey all,

I live in western Connecticut and started a new colony this spring. They have progressed well and we have been fortunate to have had a fairly wet summer. I am up to 3 deep supers–the two lowers are mostly brood, the upper is a Flow Hive chock full of honey. We have had temps in the high 70’s to high 80’s over the last few days, but I have noticed more bees that I can remember hanging out on the outside of the hive. Is this normal “bearding” or should I be worried about a swarm? I have been checking my hive regularly for queen cells and haven’t noticed anything, though I have not necessarily inspected every frame each time I open up the hive. Egg laying seems active/normal.

[JeffH]

What you could be seeing is washboarding during hot days. The bees evenly spread like that looks like that’s what they could be doing. If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be pre-swarm.

Local knowledge would be helpful in determining as to whether a colony is likely to swarm this late in summer, as well as whether to extract that honey or not.

[jdinkel]

Thanks…I had not heard of washboarding.

[jdinkel]

I just searched for washboarding and saw lots of posts about it, including from you @JeffH! And yes, my bees were doing that little back and forth motion too.