If it's very warm out they often go outside the hive. At least mine do. They cool off plus all the wing movement will help cool off the inside of the hive.

That could be it. It reached 85 today. I need to move them again so they can get more shade. Do you know if I can move them to another area on my property or do I need to take them the minimum 3 miles away?

It's called bearding. Bees will do it when it's hot or if they are getting crowded. There are a lot of questions, like: When you say you purchased three colonies, do you mean package bees or established hives? What do you have them in(how many hive bodies and what size) Did you feed them 1/1 sugar syrup? Are they on new foundation or already drawn out combs? Is there good air flow for ventilation in the hive? Do you have screened bottom boards? Give us some more details and be as specific as you can, and we can go from there.

You can move them on your property. Wedge a pc of screen in the entrance after the last of the field bees are home for the night. Use two straps to hold everything together. When you get the hive where you want it, you can pull the screen and put a little grass in the entrance or stick a branch in front of the entrance. In the morning when the bees come out, they will notice something is different and re-orient themselves. You get some stragglers showing up at the old location, but within a day or two you should be all set.

Thanks beeguy. Apparently the bee lady I got them from said that they are bearding. I think the bees are too close together and are drifting into the other hives overcrowding them. I will tell you what I know. I bought three established hives. Still don't know what a hive body is even though I stayed up til 1am reading everytying I could. I do know they are in just one box with no supers on it yet. The box looks to be about one foot wide by 18 inches long(just eyeballing it). I bought supers for the top and each has ten racks inside. I fed them 1/1 sugar syrup and half protein powder. Don't know about foundation or combs. Air flow looks good, but they face west and receive afternoon sun. Don't know about screened bottom boards yet either, but will when I open them up. I didn't actually pick them up an in-law did and I didn't get any introductory class. They were delivered and just put somewhere that was convenient at the time. So I have to learn as quickly as possible and read all night. Right now I am just trying to find the right place to put them. Any suggestions? Can they stay in full shade all day? I have 2.5 heavily wooded acres with a small creek through it and a house. Everywhere else are trees. Thanks for the tip on moving them. I asked the inlaw and he didn't get it. He thought you move them away to keep a split hive from returning, but apparently there is more to it than that. I am going to try the stick or grass thing. Thanks for you help.

I'm not sure where you live,but you might want to speak with the lady you got them from. We're in the Northeast and bees are bringing in pollen, willows are showing some color, and dandelions aren't out yet. We face our hive entrances south to southeast to get early morning sun and many are in full sun up here all day or most of the day. I wouldn't recommend full shade. If you open your hives and the bees cover 7 or so frames, it would be time to add another hive body. Here are some sources of information. Request some catalogs. You can learn a lot from reading the information they contain.
Betterbee.com
Brushymountain beefarm
You can probably get good information by talking to a local beekeeper since they will be in the same climate and similar conditions. See if there is a bee club or organization nearby.
A super site is beesource.com
It may seem a little overwheling at first but there are many knowledgeable beekeepers who can help you out. You can take a look there to see if any clubs are listed nearby in your state.
Oh, and the branch you place in front of the hive should be leafy enough so that they take notice that something is really different

Try the link below. If it doesn't work, go to Beesource.com, click on "The Exchange" scroll down to "local associations" and click on Florida and you will find a list of contact information for Florida clubs and associations

Here is a link that might be useful: http://beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=214906

Thanks Tony, I did find a local Association and monthly meetings that I can attend. OK. My problem has gotten worse over the last two days and my bees are definitely drifting into this hive #1. Apparently, the inlaw knew nothing about this possibility. We did open them up today and #1 it was packed full of bees and the outer combs were full of honey. I also noticed a queen cell. When we opened #2 it was thriving and looked happy. However, #3 has lost a lot of its population probably into #1. The inlaws say you can't move bees from one hive to the next, but I have read that you can. What should I do. Are my bees going to swarm? Oh, BTW, we supered all three hives today and moved #2 to another location. Hive #1 still has bees covering the outside(which has become worse every night) now five hours later. Help please!

Below is a link to Michael Bush's site that should be able to help you much more than I could

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm

Thanks for all your help Beeguy!

I am also in the Fla. panhandle and would like to know where the bees have gone. Last summer I saw a strange lookimg bee and not a single honey bee the whole year. So far this year not a bee to be seen yet, so where are they? I have a garden that needs them so does anyone know where they are and what happened to them. HELP

DAN

Simply swap hives 1 and 3. The returning foragers will continue the return to the same spot no matter which hive is sitting there. The nurse bees will remain with the hive. Swapping them will give hive #3 the returning workers and help strengthen it. You should make sure it has a queen. Bees should not drift that easily unless their hive is queenless.

You can also prop the tops open with a small stick to give the bees additional ventilation.

Bandit is so right about swapping hives and checking to se if you have a queen in the hive losing bees. If you swapped some frames there is a good chance you moved your queen on one of them. With moved hives you really need to put that branch in each hive entry. You also need to mark hives with big splashes of paint to help the bees recognize their box. X here O there, whatever...just different.
JoeT