Mar 30 (edited) in General discussion
Is my colony getting ready to swarm?
Soooo...I thought my colony died/absconded over winter
There was very little activity around the hive as cold weather set in here in North Texas. I bought Brood Builder Patties from Dadant as a supplemental food (probably overkill in hind sight), and except for opening up the super to check on the food, I left the hive closed. I never saw any activity around the bee patties (as opposed to a LOT of activity when I was feeding them sugar syrup last spring).
When I opened the super again about 2 weeks ago (after a few very warm days), there was STILL no sign of activity and it did not look like the bees had touched the bee food all winter.
There WAS however a steady stream of tiny ants marching through the hive to the bee food.
I thought, "okay, the colony must have gotten irritated by the ants and just absconded."
Then yesterday evening -- just about sunset -- there was a HUGE cloud of bees that seemed to appear out of nowhere and the front of the hive was almost completely bearded over. (See video below)
This is behavior that I never saw all last spring/summer/fall. Is the colony getting ready to swarm?
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Is my colony getting ready to swarm?
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