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| This hive is hot. The bees are bearding under the bottom board. This is normal. |
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| This hive is overcrowded. The hive needed a second brood box two weeks before this pic was taken. This is a swarm waiting to happen. |
Several package colonies needed food, so I fed ProSweet. All of my hives are two deep right now.
All of my package colonies needed pollen patties. The fruit bloom is pretty much over. In some areas the available pollen has dropped considerably. There may be a dearth of pollen for a couple weeks. Making sure hives have pollen right now will keep the hives moving forward. Package bees, while their population is increasing, many of these hives still do not have a strong field force. There may not be sufficient foragers to supply the pollen needs of the hive.
Having entrance reducers in right now, in hot humid weather, can get swarming behavior to start up. The entrance reducers prevent the hive from properly cooling their hive. A hot hive is the same as overcrowded conditions.
It is normal on hot days that bees will be hanging outside the hive. Sometimes the bees hang in a clump under the entrance of the hive or the bees can be covering the front of the hive. This does not mean that the bees are swarming. The bees are just hot.
Adding a box of drawn comb either a deep or a medium honey super is a way to add room for the bees. A box that is filled with all undrawn foundation is not room. The bees will not occupy the boxes very well. A box of undrawn foundation will not solve overcrowding.
Switching colonies works great for preventing swarming and helping overcrowding. I show how to switch colonies in the previous post video.
Keep up weekly hive inspections. Remove uncapped swarm cells.
The main nectar flow is less than a month away. Keep the bees from swarming and the benefit will be a nice crop of honey.
