The bees in Jared's hive were getting a bit defensive. He's taken a coupe of stings and been chased across the yard more than once.
Upon watching the hive entrance, he watched as a bumble bee flew right into the hive.
We pulled the roof and watched the "foyer*" area as the bumble tried to enter the actual hive. The girls wouldn't let the bumble into the main part of the hive.
We saw this happen several times over several days. We figured that the girls were being attacked by the bumble bees and that is why they were being overly defensive.
We found 2 dead bumblebees in the grass under the hive entrance. One of them still had a honey bee sting in it.
We reduced the entrances with half corks so that the bumblebees can't get in and we'll continue to observe. I hope this settles them down.
We also put in a modified aluminum baffle to try to encourage straight comb building.
Bumble bee trying to enter the hive (getting attacked).
Cross comb
Bumblebee with Honey bee stinger
Two dead bumbles under the hive entrance.
Cross combing (we'll fix that later by cutting out the comb and hair clipping it in straight)
 |
| Reduced entrance holes |
No comments:
Post a Comment