When Hives are Bearding

• #1- The Reasons that colonies beard.

• #2- What you can do about it.

Now let’s get into the core of each point! The world of beekeeping is waiting for you!

Point #1- The Four Reasons a Colony may Beard.

#1- Swarming:

Usually the very first thing that beginner beekeepers think or worry about when they see their colonies bearding is that they’re about to swarm.

Let me assure you that I have never seen a colony beard when they’re about to swarm. When a colony swarms, they simply pour out of the hive entrance, taking off into the air like fighter jets!

I have never seen one of my colonies swarm from a bearding position.

Watch my video here to see a colony in the process of swarming and notice that there is no sign of bearding at all.

#2- Swarm overpowering a Weaker colony:

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It is quite possible for a stronger, nearby swarm to overpower a smaller, weak colony and beard on the outside of the box as they do so. It could look something like this:

#3- To relieve Congestion in the Brood Chamber.

Brood needs a specific temperature in order to develop and eventually emerge as fully grown adult bees.

Especially in the evening time, a colony will beard during the warmer months when their population is large in order to relieve congestion in the brood box so that it doesn’t get too warm.

They do this by bearding outside and just hanging out. This is a great time to compare beard sizes among all of your colonies to gauge their population size/strength.

#4- They need more Room!

Bees will also beard because they are running out of room. This is another way of saying that the beekeeper needs to put more boxes on the colony.

By needing more room, it means that there is not enough room inside for every single bee. Thus they will beard outside to ALSO relieve congestion and if left untended for too long they will eventually swarm at that stage.

In the picture I showed above, in this case they simply needed more room, so I added a honey super on top with un-drawn frames during the middle of a nectar flow.

Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom 😉. I want to hear from you!