# Bees Sleeping Outside The Hive?



## georgeIDH (Apr 16, 2012)

When I was feeding the hens this morning I noticed this clump of bees sleeping outside the hive. Any idea why they would be hanging out there over night? (This was about 6:45 in the morning)


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## TRAPPERTOM (Mar 21, 2012)

Mine have been doing that too, nothing to worry about


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## Nu-Bee (Apr 21, 2012)

From what all I have read if overnight temps are warm they will move outside where it's cooler

Nu-Bee


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## Artur_M (Aug 14, 2016)

Hello,

I am new to beekeeping and sometime don't know how to "understand" bee's language.
So last 3-4 days I noticed that more and more bees are "chilling" outside. They are at work in the morning and during a day, but sleep outside whenever they "come home".
It was hot during the last weekend (3-4 days ago), at about 97-98F, but there were fewer bees outside than today (91F).

I have 2 hives, and both are acting the same way with a little difference of the number of bees.
Both hives are 2 deep-box hives 10 frames, and both were started from 5-frame nucs, which the seller convinced me should be put on the side of the hive and not in the middle. I looked at the activities in the hive and find that bees are expanding to the side where they can and don't have the ability to expand towards the other side. So I took the 2 "untouched" frames and moved them to the other side, so they can expand.
Now everything goes well, except that they sleep outside. Both hives still have room to draw comb and in both sections: upper deep and lower deep.

I am also worried about swarming.
Any ideas?
Thanks


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## Steve56Ace (Sep 5, 2014)

5Nucs go into one 10Deep until they fill out a minimum of 8 frames. Then you add another box and yes add frames to the sides and don't split the brood nest with undrawn frames. IMHO / I sometimes will put a medium frame in the middle of a nest to let them make brood comb below as varroa management but still haven't split the pheromones into two half in the box. Set a timer/Reminder to get brood comb out to freeze or I become a varroa breeder. 

FWIW I was talking to Dr Ellis last weekend about the bearding( they don't really sleep do they? They don't have eye lids) and IMHO the bearding is not that the bees are hot but that they getting out of the way of the ventilating of the hive airs. Be it for temperature or curing nectar. Look for correlations to temp and flows. 

I got a TBH with a camera on the face/ entrance and another inside a walkway to the hive chamber. Surely anecdotal but I been watching and trying to make sense of what they do. Maybe in a few decades I'll figure something out.


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