Angry Bees

[petersbees]

Gave my hive an inspection the other day, usually the girls are very calm with just the usual bees coming and going from the hive, on this inspection there were about half a dozen bees outside the hive making lots of noise but not doing anything.

Had a look inside everyting appeared as usual, queen all stages of brood, good level of stocks. A few bees buzzing around but no bother apart from two who gave me a right going over, real in your face stuff.

They were still giving me a hard time 50 yards from the hive. Next day there were a few dead bees outside the hive and the bees were back to doing what they do best collecting nectar and pollen.

Was this a case of robbing that I interupted?

 

[BKF Admin]

If you had robbing going on you would see bees darting around the entrance and the combs would be torn and ripped.

Were they Drones that you found dead?
Do they have enough stores?

 

[petersbees]

There was no damage to the combs in the hive and they were drones that were giving me a hard time and were dead outside the hive.

Thanks for your prompty reply

 

[bellabee]

What was the weather like? Our bees have been angry recently.

 

[petersbees]

The weather was fine and sunny, perhaps because that is unusal for Cumbria that was why they were upset!!! They were making a lot of noise even as I approached the hive before I lit the smoker and suited up

 

[bellabee]

Sounds like they are up to something...

We had angry bees, found out there were in the process of re Queening, and now our new Queen is laying guess they are being protective...

I bet your bees are up to something too, who knows you will find out soon I am guessing!!

 

[bellabee]

I have only been doing this for a very short time and have learnt so much so soon, I do know bees are sneaky...

 

[viridens]

Drones have a much deeper and more noticeable buzz than workers. Could it be that they were what you were hearing? And are you sure that the persistent bees following you were drones? They don't normally do that (and you have nothing to fear from them if they do!).

 

[Swarm]

It seems to be a common thing this year, a lot of reports of mood change. Early on I had a couple of hives that became fiesty, each frame moved brought more up from the seams and they didn't give two hoots about smoke. I split one with a Snelgrove set up and this was taken apart last weekend into hive and nuc. As you can imagine, there were a lot of confused bees in the air during this operation, shifting brood boxes and transferring frames. My wife remarked how well behaved they were, at one point my left side was black from head to waist. It was a pleasant surprise.
The other hive just had a super added last inspection so this weekend we'll see how they are behaving.

 

[Midland Beek]

Are your bees starving? Normally, you puff smoke, bees tank up with honey, and want to be friendly. However, with no honey to tank up on the smoke isn't kind of going to work.

More dead bees than usual is indicative of robbing.

 

[Swarm]

Are your bees starving? Normally, you puff smoke, bees tank up with honey, and want to be friendly. However, with no honey to tank up on the smoke isn't kind of going to work.

That's the theory, yes. They've plenty of stores but they are just reluctant to move for anything less than too much smoke. You can hear their objections and they still come up when the next frame is moved anyway. I've been placing the first frame over half the brood box recently, that helps a little. Mine are not savage, but it does take some of the enjoyment away when you are being really gentle and they are still bouncing off your head.

 

[viridens]

There was no damage to the combs in the hive and they were drones that were giving me a hard time and were dead outside the hive....

I'm still confused by what you said here. Did you read my previous post?

 

[Hebeegeebee]

As viridens writes - drones are more noisy (they drone a lot!) and f you wrote it was drones then you have the answer. They could have been out a-mating if the weather was good. they could have been trying to get back in the hive but the workers were trying to chuck them out? (Dead drones outside is the clue).