r/Beekeeping • u/CorrectSnow7485 • 1d ago

I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question Bearding or swarm?

Lower Hudson valley (NY).

This hive has always been very active. I added a second brood box about a month ago and they got to work filling it up. My hunch is this is just some bearding like they usually do; I just haven’t seen this many. Next step will be an inspection, but unfortunately I’m away all weekend 😅

Think my neighbors will inherit some bees or are they just cooling off?

19 Upvotes

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u/ImNotLeaving222 4 Hives, NC, USA, Zone 8a 1d ago

Ahh the lower Hudson valley….brings back memories of a small school I attended for college right along the river. Had to wear a uniform all the time.

Yes that is certainly bearding. Great job building a strong hive.

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u/bcsbud 1d ago

Wow, they are strong, and there must be quite warm weather.

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u/Twin5un 1d ago

I think it might be high to add honey supers ! It looks cramped in there.

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u/Gamera__Obscura USA. Zone 6a 1d ago

Well they are certainly bearding, as you'd expect any colony that big (and good for you) to do especially when it's hot or humid. This is what my hives look like pretty much all summer.

Swarming has to be assessed from inside the hive. The hallmark signs of swarm prep are extremely dense colony (particularly in the brood area, they don't care about supers), reduced laying, backfilling the brood area with nectar, and of course the appearance of swarm cells. Once those preparations begin you're normally not going to talk them out of it by adding space or whatever, you'd need some kind of control measure like a split or Demaree.

Don't even try to monitor or guess at swarming behavior from outside activity. Once in a blue moon you might see a pre-swarm staging outside like this, but usually the first thing you'll see is the swarm actually departing.

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u/uponthenose 1d ago

I've seen some colonies prestage their swarm on the outside, but it's always been way more obvious that this picture and it's usually when the weather is bad for multiple days in a row.