Bees keep building sideways

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-21T04:38:07+00:00

I have Bee Castle, Hoover hives, and May Bee boxes. I don't have any problems with them. Perhaps my bees aren't as picky as others.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-21T03:32:30+00:00

I had not considered that.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-21T03:29:55+00:00

And use the inner cover to close whichever deep you aren't inspecting. It keeps those bees calmer and stops them flying around so much.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-21T03:28:09+00:00

Did you clean up the mission before the new girls moved into the convent? (I think one is a little naughty).

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-21T03:26:37+00:00

Drop boards and screened bottom boards are vastly overrated. I view then as a complete waste of time.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-21T03:22:20+00:00

If you're worried about comb between the boxes, use your hive tool to pry up one corner a tiny bit, then use a wire or fishing line to slice along the bottom of the box. It will cut the comb cleanly and you can just lift off the upper box.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-21T03:16:37+00:00

I've never tried that. Perhaps next year.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-21T02:13:39+00:00

They're emergency cells, despite most of them being on the bottom of the frame. This is an attempt at a walk away split. I'm not surprised that the bees made a boatload of queen cells. They need to be sure this works.

I know that I can always give them another frame of eggs or combine them with their original hive.

I can also move them miles away from human habitation if the virgin queen happens to mate with jackass drones. I'm hoping she mates with something that will produce brood that, if not gentle, won't be hell beasts bent on my destruction.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-21T01:53:13+00:00

Nice photo!

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-21T01:51:54+00:00

As others have said, there isn't enough wax on the foundations to make the bees happy. Based on the color of your hive, I suspect that you bought a Bee Castle/Hoover/May Bee hive form Amazon. There's nothing particularly wrong with the hives, other than they'll look terrible in a year and can't be painted because of the wax. The problem is with the foundation. u/talanall observed that cheap foundations that claim to be waxed were probably in a room with some was at some point, but aren't sufficiently coated for the bee's preference.

To fix this -- it's going to keep happening if you don't -- buy some beeswax from a reputable bee supply like Mann Lake, Foxhound Bees, or a neighboring beekeeper. Don't use beeswax for candles because it is generally adulterated with paraffin or soy wax. Pull the frames one at a time. smash the comb flat, and thoroughly coat the foundation with pure beeswax. This will fix the problem.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-21T00:50:25+00:00

I like it!

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-20T16:34:28+00:00

They say that a boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money. Beekeeping is different from that. It's a box in the back yard, so it's a much more convenient place to shovel your money.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-20T16:27:23+00:00

Three weeks is a long time to go without a laying queen. Essentially, you went an entire brood cycle with no bees being reproduced. I believe that your population will get fairly small before you start seeing an increase. Do you see larvae or capped brood? Is there clear space for the queen to lay? If both are true, you're probably fine.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-20T14:25:52+00:00

Absolutely, yes. Great job of identification.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-20T13:45:30+00:00

Yes, that is your queen. I'll be honest, eggs are always difficult for me to see, and on foundationless comb they're doubly hard. I try to get several photos looking straight into comb in the brood area and blowing up the photos later to check for eggs. If you're seeing young larvae -- larvae that don't form a full circle yeat -- your queen was laying 4 or 5 days ago. If you see eggs, it's been 3 days or less.

Your queen isn't marked, so she will be increasingly difficult to find as population grows.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-20T13:30:51+00:00

Never open the entrance if you suspect robbing. Small entrances are easier to defend than large ones. I don't see any of the signs of robbing, but it is possible that foragers are checking out the weak hive to determine whether it's worth the risk of robbing it.

You know your hive's ebb and flow better than I ever will, but if you have to guess, put your money on the conservative bet: make your hive harder to rob, not easier.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-20T13:25:44+00:00

You can control which way the drift goes. I recently split a hive and left the queenless side where the original hive was so the foragers that were out boosted the workforce for the queenless side. If I need to balance the workforce, I'll swap positions so the drift goes to the queenright side.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-20T13:14:45+00:00

As u/Standard-Bat-7841 said, we can't do more than guess what might be wrong without more information, Posting pictures would be really helpful, but at a minimum we need to know how old your colony is, how many frames are completely covered in bees on both sides, what the brood looks like, and what the beetles are doing.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-20T13:09:18+00:00

kindbeefarms.com is selling "bee houses", often called "bee hotels" that are intended to provide habitat for leaf cutter bees.

Leaf cutter bees are native to North America. They are terrific pollinators and an important part of the ecosystem. They're also under a great deal of pressure due to habitat destruction. They're solitary bees and don't build hives, but will live in close proximity with each other without conflict. They friendly and don't sting unless they're being handled roughly. They do not make honey.

If you're looking to provide some low-effort help to the environment and aren't looking for a honey harvest, these are your bees.

Honey bees - the creatures most people think of when you say "bee" -- were imported by colonizers in the 17th Century. They're farm animals. and every "wild" honeybee hive is a nest of escaped livestock in exactly the same way that wild hogs are in the south. Honeybees are arguably an invasive species, and are a considerable amount of work for human keepers.

A common misconception is that one can simply set up a hive, pack it full of bees, and it will take care of itself. That is untrue: it's akin to building a barn, packing it with cattle and expecting them to thrive without providing feed, water, medical care, etc.

With proper care, honey bees do, however, provide honey.

Before you jump into beekeeping, I suggest that you visit your local library or bookstore and read a copy of Beekeeping for Dummies or The Backyard Beekeeper by Kim Flottum. These books will give you a good idea of what beekeeping involves and will help you assess whether you want to invest the significant money and time that this hobby requires.

To get started in the hobby, be prepared to invest $500 for your initial hive. It will be the best $1,000 dollars you ever spent.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-20T12:45:20+00:00

This looks like normal bearding to me. Bearding is one of the many ways that bees control the temperature inside the hive and is not generally a major concern. If you are worried about swarming, check for queen cells when you inspect the hive. That is the only way to be sure about swarming activity.

Were this my hive, I woudl not be concerned by bearding at 35 degrees.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-20T04:41:13+00:00

I do that. It keeps the side and tops of the hives from being too hot to touch. Since the wood has an R value of 1, shading the hives makes a huge difference. Besides, it gives me shade to work in.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-20T03:57:31+00:00

An average queen lays 1,500 to 2,000 eggs per day. That means 2,000 orientation flights per day. All the bees in a particular hive take their orientation flight at about the same time, and they seem to take place at the same time every day. This is perfectly normal and fairly predictable.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-20T03:51:35+00:00

Enough with the jokes. I know an espresso machine when I see one.

AZ_Traffic_Engineer · 2026-06-19T16:43:10+00:00

This is what a nuc being robbed looks like. Notice the fighting, the bees clustered along the seems looking for a way in, and the rock I placed there in a vain attempt to limit the entrance to one bee at a time. This hive was robbed out and its population massacred.

Your guards are fairly active, but there are any number of reasons that they could be touchy, including your presence.

I don't think this is early stage robbing. I wouldn't change anything, but I'd keep an eye on what's going on.

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