# Bees not Foraging (Help Please)



## Scott J. (Feb 6, 2007)

My first thought is they are getting ready to swarm. Have you looked for swarm cells?


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## mann (Apr 24, 2013)

I agree with scott sounds like they are getting ready to swarm. otherwise they will work on their own not much you need to do to get them to work


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## jeffnmo (Mar 16, 2013)

You say the queen is laying that's a good sign. I assume you have checked the hive, are there stores of honey and pollen? Are you still feeding and if so what? Swarm could be a possibility but they may be going out that you just haven't noticed.


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

Feeding? New package? More info will help.


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## poppy1 (Feb 1, 2013)

No I just checked them and there are no signs of swarming, cells, cups or nothing, just not active at all


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## rniles (Oct 10, 2012)

What is the temp outside?



poppy1 said:


> I have a very good laying queen with a fairly good buildup but my bees just aren't foraging, the poplar flow is on but nothing really happening, they seem to just be hanging out tending to the brood. Please does anyone have any ideas or suggestions??


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## JStinson (Mar 30, 2013)

How much empty space do they have? As in, how many UNUSED supers are on the hive. I've seen the FBM talk about bee demoralization. That is, the bees see they have an unreasonable amount of work to do and get lazy.


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## yankee joe (Mar 16, 2013)

Poppy, I have several baited traps out. Saw bees at both locations in early April but don't have anything yet. Black berries, poplar and multiflora rose all in bloom. I think it is all the wet weather. I have dumped 8 inches of rain from the gauge in the past 9 days now I have 2 more tonight. Its like living in Seattle.


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## jeffnmo (Mar 16, 2013)

Poppy, I would continue to watch them and make sure they have feed but not panic. Continue your monitoring. Let us all know how many frames are not used. The bees have been doing this a long time and the weather this spring has thrown a lot of our hives off from normal a bit. My hive didn't seem that active for a while but a few warm days and they really went at it. And when I was concerned about inactivity I watched the hive closly for a day and found they were sending workers out, Keep us advised.


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## Birdman (May 8, 2009)

I have had a few hive's like that, I put a pollen patty on one and they started to work.:scratch:


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## thenance007 (May 25, 2011)

If this is a new package started on foundation and you are feeding them, they may be putting most of their resources into building comb and brood rearing. Feeding is more efficient for them than foraging when they have to "build their house". It is not necessarily a bad thing.


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