Hives busy this afternoon... Swarming? Hot?

First, I'll load in a panorama shot of the hives in their prairie with the backdrop of the forest.  If you click on the image, it should load up a larger view.  It is wide enough that you may have to scroll it sideways or otherwise manipulate the image, depending on your computer or device.


Click to enlarge this panorama view of the hives (roughly center of pic).


Here is a YouTube video of the mite count (first half of the clip) and my attempt to re-set the entrance reducer without getting stung (second half).

As we approached the hives this afternoon for a visual-only inspection, we saw a visitor....

Ground squirrel.

I don't think that the squirrel family of animals eats hives or honey, so I'm going to assume the little fella had no evil intentions.

Back to the hives, we saw that the hives were busier than we are used to seeing.  More bees were on the outside of the hive, and many were flying in front of the hives.  It has been quite warm and humid, so my hope is that this activity is normal and not indicative of a problem, and absconding, or a swarm.

One thought is that the colony is old enough that some of the newer bees may be starting to forage.  If this is the case, they may be making orientation flights; after all, this might be the first time that they've been out of the hive.  The movement in front of the hive seemed to look like orientation flights to me, but I'm certainly no expert.

I could also see that Hive B's entrance reducer had somehow been knocked out of place and deeper into the hive.

Entrance reducer has been knocked out of place.

I'm interested in why the entrance reducer was out of place.  I have read that the bees's activity can move the entrance reducer.  However, this is usually in the form of pushing the entrance reducer further out.  It seems to me that this was pushed in.  Perhaps a skunk?  A mouse?  I may need to set up my trail camera in this area to see what is happening during the night and while we aren't at the hives.

I wanted to look inside the hives, but this may need to wait until later in the week.  I am hoping that I won't find an intruder in Hive B.