# Bees clustered in bottom box with no comb



## mtnmyke (Apr 27, 2017)

Hello and welcome to beesource. Sounds like your hives are doing great.

What type of stand do you have the hives on? If the bottom screen is easily accessible to the entrance I've found foraging bees can get confused and end up walking under the bottom board while returning and collect on the bottom of the screen.

Also, you may want to consider leaving the insert in on your screen. I've found open bottoms to be a bit too drafty for the bees to handle and the main purpose of the screened bottom is to allow things to fall through and not necessarily airflow - although that is up for debate.


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## Tmc1313 (8 mo ago)

Thanks for the welcome and the reply. I've read about some issues with screened bottoms. My bees don't seem confused by them at all. I'm just not sure why they are clustering (both hives) in the bottom box (3rd box) and seem uninterested in building comb when they drew out two full boxes in 4 weeks. Is it normal for them to cluster and not try to build any comb? Everything else seems normal. They are coming and going bringing in lots of pollen and I assume nectar.


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## mtnmyke (Apr 27, 2017)

Could you post some photos? 

What size boxes are you using?


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## Tmc1313 (8 mo ago)

Sure, here is a photo of one of the hives. They were custom built to spec according to thewarrestore.com using his octagonal hive dimensions.


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## mtnmyke (Apr 27, 2017)

Sorry, I should have clarified. Photos of the bees outside the hive. They could simply be bearding, which is normal.


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