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Author Topic: Bees under bottom board  (Read 1627 times)

Offline beeslinger

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Bees under bottom board
« on: April 07, 2009, 07:47:27 am »
 I have thousands of bees under one of the hives. I heard it may be a swarm that had a queen that could not fly. Too cold at the moment to open the hive. Has anyone sen this before? Any ideas on what to do now? Pics are below..

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr124/beeslinger/PICT7353.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr124/beeslinger/PICT7352.jpg


Offline Greg Peck

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Re: Bees under bottom board
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2009, 08:27:25 am »
I have had this happen before. I dont remember figuring out what the cause was. In my case the bees moved out and started building comb under the hive. There were no bee inside the hive other then a few stragglers. I put them in a new box when I found them and all was well.

I think if your bees are outside of the hive it probably is not to cold to take a quick peek inside. If nothing is wrong I think I would try to put them back inside or into a nuc or other box.
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Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: Bees under bottom board
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2009, 11:04:43 pm »
A swarm with a clipped wing queen is a possiblity but in most cases of that situation the bees will eventually abandon the queen and return to the hive.

From what I've found bees that huddle under the hive like that are there temporarily, until they find a location to abscond to.  A situation like that shown in the photos there is something within the hive that the bees find objectionable.  This can range from new plastic frames placed in the hive or super, some type of chemical treatment for mites or whatever, or in rare cases something that has soaked into the hive body like a wood treatment of some kind.

But in any of those situations absconding is usually the outcome. 

I would suggest placing them in a new box, removing all chemicals (if any), and remembering to air out plastic frames before using,,,,the longer the airing out the better.  I recommend buying your plastic frames in the fall and airing them all winter.
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Offline beeslinger

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Re: Bees under bottom board
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2009, 07:54:22 am »
 Thanks for info. Today will be warm enough to open hive and look.

 

anything