From A thousand answers to Beekeeping Questions, 1917:
Q. I had 32 colonies of bees, and I have lost five of them. They will swarm and come out of their own hive and settle on the outside of some of the other hives, and leave their own hives empty, with lots of honey in them. When they settle on the other hives it causes a fight. What makes the bees do this?
A. Bees sometimes seem to have a mania for deserting their hives in spring and trying to force their way into other hives, and it isn't easy to say just why. Some think because they are weak and discouraged. Some think because they have started a lot of brood, and then the old bees have died off so rapidly that enough are not left to cover the brood. In any case the advice given is to have only strong colonies in the fall. This is sound advice on general principles, even if there should be some absconding the following spring in spite of strong colonies.
--C.C. Miller, A thousand answers to Beekeeping Questions, 1917
I saw this frenzy going on and turned the cover over to block the entrance. They were doing this same thing before I blocked it. They would pile up until they would fall in clumps. I slowed it down to try to see it better.
I consider propolizing a good trait for bees (maybe not for the beekeeper). Here is a mating nuc I found this year. The drilled hole is about 5/8". The reduced hole is about 5/16".
It wasn't working right and then it would and then it wouldn't. This is what I found. It couldn't get out, so I left it and used another smoker. It was finally out after two days.
We needed to feed because of a dearth and we still needed to finish building up the 8 frame nucs for winter. We bought 50 six gallon buckets and bought 3,450 pounds of sugar in 25 lb bags. We worked out the maximum strength we could do with hot water from my tap (140 F) and not have it crystallize out. We put one 25 pound bag in each bucket with a heaping tablespoon of ascorbic acid, then 18 pints of water and stir it with a five gallon paint stirrer. After 10 to 30 minutes we stir it again.
