building from the floor up

I installed a swarm in this Perone hive fourteen days ago. it's not a great photo so it's difficult to tell what's going on, but the view is looking down from the top. they've built from the floor up rather than from the top down as is much more common. I didn't measure, but it looks like they're about 18 inches up the side and 18 inches from each corner at the bottom. not bad for just two weeks. a lot more space to fill...



and why did they start at the bottom? I'm guessing that it was the chunk of old brood comb I left in there in an attempt to bait a swarm, though I'm really not sure. it looks like they've incorporated it into their new comb, but it doesn't look like they started building from where it was sitting. hard to say. at any rate, they seem to be doing well in spite of their unusual arrangement.

Tel, what is the tree branch for?

Miles Flansburg wrote:Tel, what is the tree branch for?

that's what the swarm was hanging on when I collected it. I clipped it off the tree and set them all in a bucket. when I got them to the hive, most of the bees were still hanging onto the branch, so it went in with them. because this portion of the hive will be left alone, the branch isn't going to cause any problems.

so it's there for my laziness.

OK that makes sense.