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Author Topic: Summer increase?  (Read 2373 times)

Offline Kris^

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Summer increase?
« on: July 01, 2005, 05:59:09 pm »
My hive 2 (and to a lesser extent, hive 1) is full of bees.  Lots of them.  Specifically, it is so full that the bees are bearding regularly each evening, despite having a screened bottom board, a vent box and an upper entrance.  There are three supers on the hive, with 2 brood boxes.  I also see a lot of "washboarding" on the front landing board, which I've seen mentioned is a sign of them having little to do.  They've also been washboarding on the inner cover in the vent boxes, and even flying around in there by the hundreds when I peek through the vent holes.  (They kinda looked like caged animals trying to escape.  :-(  )  We have had a week of rainy and humid weather, so maybe that's it.  But I've been wondering whether this may be a sign that I should split it to avoid swarming.  I haven't inspected the brood nest lately for queen cells, but intend to this weekend when I go in and try to take off honey.

Good idea or bad?  By the way, I got the idea from an article in this month's Bee Culture.

-- Kris

Offline Finsky

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Summer increase?
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2005, 11:37:30 pm »
Best thing is extract capped honey and give more space.
Warm rainy weather make hive moist and they have easier outside, but basicly they have tight inside.

If you split the hive, it is not able to collect honey.

If you should  have middle entrances, it will help ventilaition. It is hard to change air from your tower from top to bottom.

I have middle entrance open in every wto boxes in summer. We have colder climate here but holes help when tempereture is over 20C.

Offline Michael Bush

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Summer increase?
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2005, 01:39:13 pm »
Bearding does not mean they are or are not going to swarm.  It just means it's hot in the hive and they are outside so they don't contribute to the heat problems.  Make sure they have room and adequate ventilation and then accept that it's normal.
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