Bearding Bees Swarm Preparation

[Ben Framed]

When a bee beard is on the front entrance of a box is the queen in the middle of the beard and the bees waiting for her to move and follow her in swarming? Or, are the bearded bees waiting for her to come out of the box and she takes flight with then?  Or are the bearded bees waiting on a queen to return from a mating flight before the swarm takes off?  If none of the above what is the attitude before the swarming flight with the bee beard? Thanks,
Phillip 

[BeeMaster2]

Ben,
I get to see this with my observation hive. When the bees beard and stay out of the hive at night, it is a good indication that they are getting ready to swarm. When the bees beard and go in in the evening, they are just trying to minimize the temperature of the hive by reducing the number of bees in the hive.
When they are getting ready to swarm, the queen does not leave until she is ushered out by the bees as they are swarming. She is laying eggs up until she leaves even though the bees have her on a diet during the last week before the exodus. She is laying a lot less eggs on the last days but she does lay. I have had the observation hive swarm and none of the original queen sells survive but 16 days later a new queen emerged from an emergency cell.
Jim Altmiller

[Ben Framed]

Very good information Jim!! Thank you for you you detailed response. Much appreciated!! One for the note book!! Thanks,
Phillip

[Nock]

That?s good to know. I was thinking bearding was just a way to regulate temp only.

[van from Arkansas]

Jim, Agreed with your text.  You provide useful info with your observation hives.

I have a hive that is exception to the norm.  This hive bearded most of last year, till well after dark and sometimes still bearded in the morning.  I added vents, added deeps, made no difference.  This year same hive is bearding, I just checked 8:12 pm, 72F almost dark, yep, they are bearded.  The only hive out of 14 to beard this way, all day and most of night.  July and August, all night.  The hive did not swarm in 2018.  Calm bees I might add.

I just requeen this hive.  In about 8-10 weeks I will know if it?s genetic trait or not.
Cheers

[Ben Framed]

Jim, Agreed with your text.  You provide useful info with your observation hives.

I have a hive that is exception to the norm.  This hive bearded most of last year, till well after dark and sometimes still bearded in the morning.  I added vents, added deeps, made no difference.  This year same hive is bearding, I just checked 8:12 pm, 72F almost dark, yep, they are bearded.  The only hive out of 14 to beard this way, all day and most of night.  July and August, all night.  The hive did not swarm in 2018.  Calm bees I might add.

I just requeen this hive.  In about 8-10 weeks I will know if it?s genetic trait or not.
Cheers

Mr Van, is this the hive that you posted a picture of last year?

[Michael Bush]

Bearding does not indicate swarming nor does it indicate that they are not getting ready to swarm.

http://bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#bearding

[van from Arkansas]

Jim, Agreed with your text.  You provide useful info with your observation hives.

I have a hive that is exception to the norm.  This hive bearded most of last year, till well after dark and sometimes still bearded in the morning.  I added vents, added deeps, made no difference.  This year same hive is bearding, I just checked 8:12 pm, 72F almost dark, yep, they are bearded.  The only hive out of 14 to beard this way, all day and most of night.  July and August, all night.  The hive did not swarm in 2018.  Calm bees I might add.

I just requeen this hive.  In about 8-10 weeks I will know if it?s genetic trait or not.
Cheers

Mr Van, is this the hive that you posted a picture of last year?

Yes, you have a very good memory, Phil.

[van from Arkansas]

Ben,
I get to see this with my observation hive. When the bees beard and stay out of the hive at night, it is a good indication that they are getting ready to swarm. When the bees beard and go in in the evening, they are just trying to minimize the temperature of the hive by reducing the number of bees in the hive.
When they are getting ready to swarm, the queen does not leave until she is ushered out by the bees as they are swarming. She is laying eggs up until she leaves even though the bees have her on a diet during the last week before the exodus. She is laying a lot less eggs on the last days but she does lay. I have had the observation hive swarm and none of the original queen sells survive but 16 days later a new queen emerged from an emergency cell.
Jim Altmiller

M. Bush, what Jim says about bearding is observed, seen in his observation hive.
Blessings

[Ben Framed]

Thanks Mr Van, the picture stood out to me as the bees seemed to stay on the one box and line up at he joint as they were on a border. The upper box with the different color. I thought that was interesting along with the post.

[van from Arkansas]

[Ben Framed]

Yep, that?s the one! 😊😁

[Ben Framed]

Jim, I really like the idea of the observation hive. I have read your post here before about yours. Thanks for your post on the subject. I am not in a position to undertake the project at the present time but sometime in the future I might be bugging 🐝 you about more detail.
Phillip

[Ben Framed]

@ Van

Mr Van, I like the fawn picture. Was this taken by you? Last year we had two (twins) hanging out along with their mother around our home. We would see them regularly in our yard.
Phillip

[Michael Bush]

Bearding is a sign of a strong hives.  Weak hives don't swarm.  Strong hives swarm.  Not all of them, but the ones that swarm are always strong hives and strong hives beard.  In other words there is an indirect relationship.  So if they are bearding it doesn't mean they are trying to swarm nor that they are not trying to swarm, but is probably an indicator that you need to take a look at what's happening just in case.

[Ben Framed]

but is probably an indicator that you need to take a look at what's happening just in case.

My thoughts exactly. Thanks

[BeeMaster2]

Ben,
When yo are ready to build your observation hive, the plans are right here on BeeMaster under Equipment Usage and hive plans. I think they were posted in 2010.
Jim Altmiller

[Ben Framed]

Ben,
When yo are ready to build your observation hive, the plans are right here on BeeMaster under Equipment Usage and hive plans. I think they were posted in 2010.
Jim Altmiller

Thanks Jim

[Ben Framed]

Update on the hanging, bearded hive. There were about 12 swarm cells, 0 were capped. They were already running out of room in the brood area and filling with honey.  These bees was located in a five frame nuke system Quad stacked. I had just recently added boxes by check-boarding. These bees are booming!  I broke these down into 10 frame boxes today. On the bottom I placed 7 brood frames and added three empty frames in between the middle ones via checker-boarding. I added a second brood on top on this one same M/O. (box checker-boarding) The third top box was left with 6 frames of honey and again added frames via check-boarding. So the original 20 frames are now in 3, 10 frame boxes. As long as I didn?t miss a queen cell, these should be fine I am thinking. Lesson learned, once 2 five frame nucs have at least 7 frames drawn out its time for 10 frame boxes, and or splitting, if not before on the latter. Transferring 4 five frame nucs is more trouble that can easily be avoided in my opinion. As fast as they multiply, give them plenty of room to develop?

[Michael Bush]

So what did you do with the queen cells?  You removed them?  I would split it three ways or more and make sure each has some queen cells.  I almost never destroy a queen cell.  The only time I do is if I really don't want the genetics.  Once they have queen cells, they will probably swarm no matter what you do.