Mother Hive Still Going Bonkers!

[Jen]

6 days ago I was concerned about my mother hive and all the congestion at the front entrance. Advice was to get a med on there and a queen excluder. I did. Anytime we have a 65 or up day, this hive still gets congested. So I peeked into the new top med and found that about 75 percent of the brand new foundations are already pulled and one of the frames is filled with nectar. That's just six days.

I haven't been to this point of having a huge hive. Seems to me they are hatching out sooner than they're dying.

I'm sure that they know what they are doing!!! But does anyone else's hives do this?

[barry42001]

Well they are for the moment hatching faster then dying.  Not sure what that seems to be screening or hardware cloth across the entrance, queen excluders don't look like that I don't think. Suspect if you open the entrance with no obstruction, some congestion would be alleviated some my hive is now fully open entrance, and upper entrance, of course it's consistently been in the mid 80's for a month. Allow the bees unrestricted travel aside from queen excluders.
If your worried about mice entering the hive, suspect that would be a rather short lived event .

[Yankee11]

Thats a robber screen, I don't think that hive is gonna be robbed either 

I am thinking another super is in order if they have 7 frames pulled.

[tbonekel]

I was also going to say take the screen off.

[tefer2]

If robbers try to enter that hive, they will get mugged in short order.
Remove robber screen and add more room is my thought.

[riverbee]

what tefer and yankee said, lose the screen, add more room.  also, if you have an entrance reducer on, remove that as well. they can defend themselves.
i would think on dividing this hive as soon as you can before they wind up in the trees.

[Jen]

Okay! That sounds good    was wondering when I could remove the robbing screens. We have had several short flow's already.

Riv, my thought are on what you and Iddee said on another thread, that if you want more hives, split. But if you want honey, go up. So I'll take the screens off and add supers at this point. Maybe put a swarm trap just in case 

[barry42001]

Be positive, your in a no swarm zone lol:D

[barry42001]

seriously though with the entrance wide open put on extra supers as needed check the brood chambers to ensure the queen has space to lay eggs and manipulate accordingly aside from that grab a lounge chair a pina colada and watch the girls work for you ! :-)

[Jen]

Thanks Barry, the lounge chair is a great idea! I'm certainly more calm and positive this year than last year. Last year, March 16th was my first swarm, I was so caught off guard and unprepared. Doing much better this season 

[riverbee]

"Riv, my thought are on what you and Iddee said on another thread, that if you want more hives, split. But if you want honey, go up. So I'll take the screens off and add supers at this point. Maybe put a swarm trap just in case  "

jen, with this very strong hive, you can accomplish both, more bees, more honey, and keep them from swarming. just because we add up doesn't always mean they won't swarm, there are no guarantees, and like barry said, make sure the queen has room to lay.  just make up a nuc, all you have to do is swipe a couple brood frames from her, frame of pollen, and frames of honey,  either 4 frame or 5 frame. the bees given eggs of the right age, (no more than 4 days) can produce their own queen. also, this is the best time of the season for them to draw foundation and keep them busy with it. if you have the queen excluder on, move the drawn super up and add another box of foundation below it, take off the excluder, the queen won't lay up there until the foundation is drawn, but if you do that, keep an eye on that and replace it once the bees have drawn the foundation or you see signs that the queen has layed up in the super. sometimes the queens will lay even if the foundation is only partially drawn in the center.

start looking for swarm cells.  you can also utilize swarm cells to make up a nuc if you would like.

be proactive, not reactive this year running around in a pair of jammies, or whatever your attire was last year chasing bees multiple times......... ..........

[iddee]

Jen, the open space MUST be adjacent to the brood. If there is a honey band above the brood, the queen will not go up. Adding space on top does NOT prevent swarming.

[Jen]

Riv - "be proactive, not reactive this year running around in a pair of jammies, or whatever your attire was last year chasing bees multiple times......... ..........
 
       Hahahaha, That Cracked Me Up! Thanks Riverbee  I definately feel more comfortable this year ~

   

[riverbee]

"Jen, the open space MUST be adjacent to the brood. If there is a honey band above the brood, the queen will not go up. Adding space on top does NOT prevent swarming."

what iddee said........

[Jen]

"Jen, the open space MUST be adjacent to the brood. If there is a honey band above the brood, the queen will not go up. Adding space on top does NOT prevent swarming."

what iddee said........

     Yes! This has been a valuable bit of info for me this season. I've been checking for that. Yes, I know going
up will not prevent swarming, I'm just trying to avoid it this year.

[pistolpete]

To check for swarm cells, you don't need to go through the whole hive.  Just tip up the second brood box and check the bottoms of the frames.  Most of the time, that's where they'll be.