Any ideas what is happening here?

[Midgey]

Half an hour ago 1000s bees were flying around the hive making a very loud noise. Now they are covering the outside. Were they about to swarm and changed their mind or is something else going on?

 

[Boston Bees]

Possible mating flight? Could there be a virgin in there?

Also worth checking under the mesh floor in case the queen has got herself stuck under there?

 

[Midgey]

Thanks - they are all now back in the hive. Very possibly a virgin queen so fingers crossed and I’ll check next weekend

 

[user 819]

VQ possibly or failed swarm attempt, depends on the queen status prior to the event.

Were you expecting a new Q to emerge or know if they were preparing QC's ?
Was the resident Q clipped ?

We have no idea unless you give some pointers.

 

[enrico]

If the temperature suddenly rose and it has been cold and wet for a few days there are a few hundred young bees ready to find out where they live. They all leave at once and fly around like mad things for ten minutes and then.....hey presto.....they all go back inside. This may not have been that but if the temperature suddenly got to flying temp then that is probably the answer. It happens many times in the spring!

 

[user 819]

More then a few hundred there Eric, looks like a reasonable cluster going by the lhs as well.

 

[Earthboy]

1. During the swarm attempt, the queen could not join the rest of the gang.
2. If the bees are not from the same hive, it could be a feral swarm moving in, having smelled the weakening queen pheromone. This happened to me yesterday while I have opened up a weak colony and was going through frame by frame inspection, which made me suspicious that bees in the neighborhood seem to know which colony is weak and vulnerable for potential invasion. In such invasion, there is NO fighting whatever.
3. Typically an orientation flight (usually around 2:00 in the afternoon) seldom generates such a cluster.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

2. If the bees are not from the same hive, it could be a feral swarm moving in, having smelled the weakening queen pheromone.

Really..................................

 

[Earthboy]

"In the December 2010 issue of American Bee Journal, Dr. Wyatt A. Mangum describes the phenomenon of honey bee usurpation, which is the taking over of a healthy colony by a summer swarm. Mangum not only describes this unusual behavior in great detail, but provides photographs as well.

Until recently, usurpation sightings have been limited to Africanized bees taking over colonies of European honey bees in the southwestern United States. However, Mangum’s usurped hives are located in Virginia and the resulting colonies did not show any of the aggressive behaviors typical of Africanized colonies. Instead they were “normal” colonies with average European honey bee traits. According to Mangum, other occurrences of usurped hives have been recorded in nearby areas of Virginia and North Carolina. "

https://www.honeybeesuite.com/usurpation-when-one-colony-takes-over-another/
"In FY 2007, we have found that a volatile queen-specific compound, E-'- ocimene, plays a role in queen acceptance and might also be a cue to invading swarms that communicates the presence of a queen."

https://portal.nifa.usda.gov/web/cr...bee-colonies-by-african-honey-bee-swarms.html

 

[Earthboy]

". . . The seasonal patterns of usurpation corresponded with the reproductive swarming season in spring and summer and the absconding season in the fall-winter months. Queenless colonies, colonies that contained a queen confined in a cage, and those that had been recently requeened were 2–8 times more likely to be invaded than were colonies that contained an actively laying queen, suggesting that queen condition may have a major influence on host-colony susceptibility to usurpation (Emphasis added). This trend was particularly pronounced in October–December, during which months the usurpation rates experienced by caged-queen and queenless colonies approached 20–50%. Our results show that nest usurpation is seasonally frequent among honey bees in the southwestern U.S., which suggests that reproductive parasitism contributes to the invasion success of African honey bees and possibly other introduced social insect species."

https://www.researchgate.net/public...ean_colonies_by_African_swarms_in_Arizona_USA

 

[Erichalfbee]

1. During the swarm attempt, the queen could not join the rest of the gang.
2. If the bees are not from the same hive, it could be a feral swarm moving in, having smelled the weakening queen pheromone. This happened to me yesterday while I have opened up a weak colony and was going through frame by frame inspection, which made me suspicious that bees in the neighborhood seem to know which colony is weak and vulnerable for potential invasion. In such invasion, there is NO fighting whatever.
3. Typically an orientation flight (usually around 2:00 in the afternoon) seldom generates such a cluster.

You had feral bees invade the colony as you inspected?
Usurpation swarms are reported in the U.K. they are rare as hens teeth.
And we don’t have AHB here either

 

[Codford]

You had feral bees invade the colony as you inspected?
Usurpation swarms are reported in the U.K. they are rare as hens teeth.
And we don’t have AHB here either

I had one last year at an out apiary, so I was not there to witness the event. It was a relatively weak hive and I was considering requeening. I only noticed at the next inspection when there appeared to be a lot more bees and new brood.

To start with I assumed that the queen has bucked up and turned things around. I then noticed that somehow she had also managed to get herself marked - I don’t mark (or clip) my queens…

 

[Erichalfbee]

I sieved a colony looking for a queen once and returned the following day to see if the queen was indeed in the super above the QX. The box was empty of all bees so they must have gone somewhere. I can’t remember whether the other colony was busier though. I was a clueless beginner.
I used a glue trap once for wasps and caught a blue tit. It’s horrid learning from such awful mistakes which is why this forum is so great. You can learn from other’s

 

[Earthboy]

You had feral bees invade the colony as you inspected?
Usurpation swarms are reported in the U.K. they are rare as hens teeth.
And we don’t have AHB here either

I suspected more but personally observed three when such usurpation occured. Suspected when a weak colony has suddenly become populous in the fall.

 

[E&MBees]

"In the December 2010 issue of American Bee Journal, Dr. Wyatt A. Mangum describes the phenomenon of honey bee usurpation, which is the taking over of a healthy colony by a summer swarm. Mangum not only describes this unusual behavior in great detail, but provides photographs as well.

Until recently, usurpation sightings have been limited to Africanized bees taking over colonies of European honey bees in the southwestern United States. However, Mangum’s usurped hives are located in Virginia and the resulting colonies did not show any of the aggressive behaviors typical of Africanized colonies. Instead they were “normal” colonies with average European honey bee traits. According to Mangum, other occurrences of usurped hives have been recorded in nearby areas of Virginia and North Carolina. "

https://www.honeybeesuite.com/usurpation-when-one-colony-takes-over-another/
"In FY 2007, we have found that a volatile queen-specific compound, E-'- ocimene, plays a role in queen acceptance and might also be a cue to invading swarms that communicates the presence of a queen."

https://portal.nifa.usda.gov/web/cr...bee-colonies-by-african-honey-bee-swarms.html

This happened to my bees last summer, except I caught the usurpering queen and rehomed them with another beek.

 

[Earthboy]

Half an hour ago 1000s bees were flying around the hive making a very loud noise. Now they are covering the outside. Were they about to swarm and changed their mind or is something else going on?

Two ways to verify if indeed a usurpation swarm has moved in:

1. If you marked your queen, you can check if she is replaced.
2. If usurped, you can observe a markedly increased number of sorties shooting forth.

Here are more discussion on usurpation:

https://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe

 

[Repwoc]

You had feral bees invade the colony as you inspected?
Usurpation swarms are reported in the U.K. they are rare as hens teeth.
And we don’t have AHB here either

It happened to a nuc in my garden a couple of years ago. I saw the swarm arrive and invade the nuc. When I opened it up I was able to rescue the new queen I had recently introduced, still in her travel cage.

 

[holmbee]

When the weather is warm and sunny (remember that from times gone by) I noticed that at roughly the same time each day there was a small cloud of bees by the entrance of each hive. A friend who has kept bees for years told me it was newly emerged bees on an orientation flight. All back inside the hive after a fairly short time.

 

[Finman]

Possible mating flight? Could there be a virgin in there?

Also worth checking under the mesh floor in case the queen has got herself stuck under there?

There is no such like mating swarm. It is a normal swarm.

 

[North End Bees]

Usurpation swarms are reported in the U.K. they are rare as hens teeth.

Probably happening a lot more than is reported, as many beekeepers may not be aware of the possiblity.
I watched a zoom last autumn in which the Buckfast Abbey beekeepers talked about usurping swarms.
They're quite particular at marking/naming queens and keeping a close eye on lineages. They said they'd noticed it on more than a few occasions.