Queenless or maybe a dearth in Michigan?

[harvey]

Hi all,  I went out to check on a swarm that I hived about two and a half weeks ago.  This was the first time opening this hive.  Because it was a single deep I figured it would be very gentle.  I didn't smoke.  I was just going to look.  The weather was nice, low humidity and about 78 degrees with very little wind.  I took the cover off and the bees increased volume of buzz,  I noticed that it didn't look like they had drawn much comb?  I separated one of the drawn combs that I had placed in there from the bait hive and the bees began rising out of the hive.  Not to repeat what happened a couple weeks ago to me I put the frames tight back together, put the cover back on and walked away.  Tomorrow I will try it again but with smoke this time.   With such a small volume of bees I had expected them to very docile.  Now thistle is blooming all over around me and white clover is still out.  Could I still be in a dearth or maybe just have a swarm of angry bees?  There were only about four frames of bees in the hive? 

[WhipCityBeeMan]

I had something similar happen to me today here in MA.  I have a hive that was very uninviting, pouring out inner cover at me, that is about 8 frames full in one super. I did see capped brood so I am sure it has a queen.  There is clover out here but I threw a baggie feeder on it because I think we are approaching a dearth here.  I am interested to hear what others have to say. Fortunately there is a about 20 acres of buckwheat that will be in flower in about 10 days and I will move the girls to it very soon.

[garys520]

It's been really dry and hot here in Connecticut and the bees are mostly hanging around.  I assume the dry weather has shut down any major flow right now.  We're hoping for some rain soon, after last years near nothing honey harvest, we need to replenish the honey stores.

[WhipCityBeeMan]

I agree.  Last year was horrible.  This year has been much better thus far. 

[Sparky]

harvey I did not see a mention of any kind of brood. If the hive is queenless and their is no brood the smoke would not have made a difference. Best to always use a little smoke to inspect and if you had a queen that was not mated and no brood yet they can be nasty. If no brood tomorrow and you can pull a frame of both capped and uncapped brood from another hive to add beside your drawn comb it will help to calm them down till the queen gets enough brood filled. Also no mention of if you were feeding them.

[harvey]

No I am not feeding them.  Decided this year to not feed any of the hives.  Put all of them on foundationless frames too.  I will let yall know what I see tomorrow when I inspect  WITH SMOKE!!  Not much build up from what I see but without actually pulling a frame I have no idea.  I just new it was going to go bad today without smoke so quit while I was ahead.