My bees behaved badly on Thursday.

Everything looked just fine at the hive. But about 25 yards away, maybe less, a large group of bees decided to cling to the doorknob and brick wall at my basement door, which is at the bottom of a brick stairwell. I took this picture at about 1:30 or 2 PM. It was warm on Thursday and had been warm and humid for a few days so the bees were naturally out and about. But, as two beekeepers told me on the phone when I called them in a mini-panic ("they're swarming! they're swarming!), "don't worry, they're just bored." They have nothing to gather -- there's no nectar or pollen, they have nothing to do inside the hive -- they've made comb everywhere possible, it's warm enough to be outside so.... they had a party I guess. But why on my doorknob?! I know they don't understand what a doorknob is but it seems awfully mean-spirited of them. When I checked the hive a few days ago I found that the top two medium supers (I have four total) were full of either honey or sugar-water honey, which is good. I didn't examine the two lower hive boxes, but am assuming that all is well down there since there are lots of bees. I probably should have stopped feeding a few days or weeks ago but oh well. My advisors told me to stop feeding so that's it for 2010. Now it's all up to them to survive the winter with all that stored honey. I love them but I still don't know if I'm psychologically prepared to do this. Spring will tell! Or maybe late in the summer when I harvest my first honey. I hear it makes a huge mess.