Bearding

[Jen]

Crazy! It's not even April yet and my bees are bearding, it's 72 degree 

OOPS! have the granddaughter here, no in my right mind 

[barry42001]

Bearing? Bearing what pray tell?

[riverbee]

bearing, bearding, no pix, where are the pix?............

[iddee]

Looks like you are getting a good crop of bees there, Jen. Time to harvest a bunch and have chocolate covered bees. The grand kids will love them.      

[pistolpete]

My bees don't usually beard until it gets into the nineties even with strong hives.  Is the top of your hive vented well enough?

[Jen]

Yep! I have an upper entrance on the inner cover, and I short wedge that lifts the lid just a bit.

[kebee]

 Looks like getting ready to swarm to me.

Ken

[rwlaw]

If it's that cool, ya they look crowded to say the least.

[Jen]

I thought about doing a split, undecided, to prevent swarming, but on the other hand, the split lesson I learned here is to either split to gain another hive, prevent swarming. Or keep adding supers to give room. I would like honey from this hive so I need the army of foragers to make more honey... right?

[riverbee]

jen,

1. if you want extra bees, a full divide (maybe minimal honey and swarm management)

2. if you want honey, a light divide/nuc (honey and swarm management) you can do a very light spit/nuc on a booming hive that you want to make honey from, just take enough frames out, depending on the size of the colony, and how well the queen is laying and at least 2-3 frames.  this gets you some swarm management, a honey making hive, and a new small colony of bees that will make honey next season.

3. you can super up without any divide whatsoever, i have. i have also added foundation with no queen excluder on until it is drawn. you take a chance on this (supering).  just keep looking for swarm cells and make sure the queen has plenty of laying space. if one or the other starts to happen, you need to take away from that hive for swarm management. 

hope this made sense?

EDIT AND ADD:
4. suggestion from jens post #11....EQUALIZATION of the hive.........
sorry jen, i sometimes forget all the options...........

[Jen]

It does make sense, and Thank You

And I've been reading about equalizing the hive. So if I go into this very full hive and remove 5 frames of brood and add them to other weeker hives, making sure I don't transfer the queen...and then replace those 5 frames of brood with undrawn foundation... would that work as well as a light nuc?

[riverbee]

"And I've been reading about equalizing the hive. So if I go into this very full hive and remove 5 frames of brood and add them to other weeker hives, making sure I don't transfer the queen...and then replace those 5 frames of brood with undrawn foundation... would that work as well as a light nuc?"

yes it would jen, you are doing your homework!  equalization will work as well! i don't know that you need to take out 5 frames, this is a judgment call on your part for that hive!

[Jen]

Cool! Thanks Riv, for the re-enforcement    I think that's what I'll do, Monday. I'll have to go down to the first med, the one right above the deep, tilt it back and see if there are any swarm cells. If there are, should I leave them alone, or knock them off, or....??

[pistolpete]

I've lost track of what's been going on with this hive.  Didn't you already remove the queen?  If you find swarm cells in a queen right hive, you should remove the queen and about 2 lbs. of bees to a Nuc.  Also destroy all but 2 or 3 of the nicest looking queen cells.    I think that someone already said this, but it doesn't matter how many supers you add on top, if the brood nest gets too crowded they'll swarm anyway.  That's what Riv is getting at with make sure the queen has room to lay.

[Jen]

Hey Pete    Different hive we're discussing, this is my mother hive to the far right, she's loaded with bees, so much that in 65 degree weather she's bearding. I was wondering if that is a sign of some sort that I should pay attention to. I see that this hive could make me more honey this year, which is what I want. But I know that I need a truck load of foragers and to give them room to build up. Trying very hard to avoid swarming this year.

So Riverbee was explaining how to do a light nuc. Then I suggested to equalize with my other nuc or the hive that is smaller (center). Learning learning learning 

[barry42001]

Depends, if just empty queen cups, no if they are active with developing larvae and either approaching or are capped then the process is to far along, a swarm will issue. If the queen cells are in a relatively early stage of development, destroying all but on or two, divide the colony with queen cells in one, the parent queen in another, queen excluder under brood chambers to keep parent queen home. Can't do that with the other, new queen will need to mate.