Good to hear that they are surviving in your chimney .... often feral bees succumb to varroa mite and die out.
If they decide to move on the queen will leave with half the bees (possibly several thousand) ... and leave the remaining bees in the chimney with queen cells to hatch as a replacement queen. This "swarming season" tends to be anytime from late May - mid July.
The activity you've seen today is likely just to be them being busy doing their various jobs (water carrying being one of them) getting the hive ready for the summer ahead.
Bee
Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
No -you didn't 'stumble upon this forum' @Ozarmour34847 - you keep spamming this forum and being removed, so either pay for your inevitable adverts or go away. You'll just be flagged every time.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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Hi VS,
Good to hear that they are surviving in your chimney .... often feral bees succumb to varroa mite and die out.
If they decide to move on the queen will leave with half the bees (possibly several thousand) ... and leave the remaining bees in the chimney with queen cells to hatch as a replacement queen. This "swarming season" tends to be anytime from late May - mid July.
The activity you've seen today is likely just to be them being busy doing their various jobs (water carrying being one of them) getting the hive ready for the summer ahead.
Bee
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
Glad they're not going anywhere, behaviour is normal today for a sunnyish day.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...