Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: barry42001 on June 12, 2014, 12:33:00 am
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Taken few minutes ago.
Nothing is bothering them. Don't understand what mechanism is at work. Current temperature is 73 degrees.
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Humidity?
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Lol only 96% but not rain, but was all day....
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Sounds to me like they are ventilating the hive?
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We here in Cali are minus 96% humidity, it's 70 degrees out, it's 10pm. And my bees are out on the porch.
Do you treat for mites?
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs24.postimg.cc%2Fnlji4xmfl%2FDSCF9749.jpg&hash=3247e49c847c8595309e578550262f7b6bb2a87f) (http://postimg.cc/image/nlji4xmfl/)
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No I don't, survivor stock but ventilation doesn't explain crawling all over the place, and why one hive like that, other are mostly at the entrances few crawling, nothing like other. Was about 12AM here
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This is usually a sign of a nice strong colony. I've had hives that beard like that at night (and more on hot afternoons). Basically any time the temperature in the hive is a bit too high, the foragers get kicked out. Do you have a stick under the outer cover to give them a bit extra air flow?
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oops, I didn't realise you had another thread on this topic. Are you pretty sure there are no skunks around?
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Thats a tuff one Barry... Bees dont fly at night generally speaking, but they will crawl all about... Is the tarp in the background blowing around making noise? All I am doing is grasping at straws.
Eliminate the obvious. skunks, ants and other pests, Noises and other outside influences. Then begin elimination of the not so obvious. Mites, Nosema, etc. Often what is logical to us is not what the bees see as logical. Interested in knowing why they are doing that.
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A hive that had VARROA over load.
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I treated and it's drop board looked like this for some time
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And then back to normal
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Just saying might want to check mite levels once in a while.
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Man, beats me.... :-\
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It looks like a defensive position to me. The bees appear to be concentrated at the hive openings with a few "scouting the perimeter". If they were ventilating the hive, the fanning would be obvious. If these are strong hives, there do not appear to be very many bees outside for a case of overcrowding or overheating.
Others report bees on the front porch after dark but, from pics I have seen, they are doing something different than your bees are. In the case of others, the bees appear to be simply either on guard duty or out for a bit of fresh air. Your bees appear to be clogging the hive openings.
It may be that the bees remember the nasty experiences of moving day in which there is not much to be done. Inspection might make things worse.
It may be that there are some foreign critters still in the hives from moving day. Inspection would be good.
It may be something else altogether. Inspection may help identify the problem.
The bottom line is that the odd behaviour continues and you are getting no peace of mind wondering and discussing it. I know you just moved the hives and, so, it would be really good to leave them alone for a good bit. However, if it were me, I would be doing a thorough inspection. The inspection might slow them down a week. No inspection might, worst case, result in lost hives due to not taking corrective action that might be identified. Given all the unknowns, I would opt for slowing them down a week rather than risking significant losses. I think that thorough inspection, including parasite assessments, is in order.
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A heavy mite load can make for all kinds of strange behavior at strange times. I bought a hive from someone in October. I was unable to do an inspection before a cold spell set in. When it warmed up at Thanksgiving, which happens frequently here, they were trying to swarm. They did crash that winter and I had to attribute it to a heavy mite load.
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Hey Barry, I'm not to concerned about the collection of bees on the porch cause my bees do that too in the night. It's how the bees are wondering all over the hive that has my attention.
Even tho you say that these bees are VSH you might consider slowly inserting a sticky board in the hive for one week. It certainly wouldn't hurt anything ~
Last fall I had a nasty mite infestation that I didn't know about, almost lost the hive before winter. After one treatment with Mite-Away Quick Strips, the remaining bees just came back to life. The hive was three times as busy and productive ~