Buzz from Louisiana Beekeeper - Apr 14, 2011

New bees established in a beautiful apiary. Note the increased activity in the one hive. The bees (from packages) left their queens behind and joined up with the one hive (usually queen phermone is the cause). The preventive steps to keep this from happening include locking in the bees (you can use screen from packages) for 3-5 days with their feed, then giving them an opening big enough for 1 bee to go in and out. The solution is to check for live queens in the mostly empty hives and to move frames of bees back into those hives and then do the preventive step of locking them in.