Bee war!!

[Ben32]

Hi new to keeping bees, so far everything been going ok untill I came down today,
Approaching my bee hive today there were thousands of bees around my hive trying to get in, looked like they were fighting, everything settling down now and there's hundreds of dead bees infront of the hive,
What's happening??

 

[madasafish]

Did you feed them recently? Could be robbing.
Any farmers spraying crops nearby?

 

[Ben32]

I got the bees 2 week ago, and put some suger water in for them but they wasn't feeding on it so I took it out around a week ago, no, no farmers spraying I don't think

 

[Millet]

I got the bees 2 week ago, and put some suger water in for them but they wasn't feeding on it so I took it out around a week ago, no, no farmers spraying I don't think

It could have been a group of new bees doing a orientation flight and you may not have noticed the dead bees before that may have been old and injured during the move from where ever you got them from.

 

[Ben32]

Everything seems ok now they've settled down to how they were

 

[Flyboy]

I suspect its robbing. Had my best hive under siege last week and had thousands of dead bees subsequently. There was no drop of honey in the hive and all the bees were dormant almost sleepy till I placed a frame of stores in and it became alive. Keep a close eye on it!

 

[Ben32]

I suspect its robbing. Had my best hive under siege last week and had thousands of dead bees subsequently. There was no drop of honey in the hive and all the bees were dormant almost sleepy till I placed a frame of stores in and it became alive. Keep a close eye on it!

Yes that sounds like it, I will keep checking on them

 

[beeno]

I agree with Millet. If you have reduced entrance, which you should have, the bees get a bit frantic to get back into hive when doing orientation flights. Watch the bees leaving the hive if they fly off in different directions then they are foraging. Time of the day is correct for orientation flights. Good luck and keep observing.

 

[Ben32]

I agree with Millet. If you have reduced entrance, which you should have, the bees get a bit frantic to get back into hive when doing orientation flights. Watch the bees leaving the hive if they fly off in different directions then they are foraging. Time of the day is correct for orientation flights. Good luck and keep observing.

How do I stop them doing this? Make the entrance bigger?

 

[Millet]

How do I stop them doing this? Make the entrance bigger?

You will not stop them doing it as it is what new bees do to learn there location, it will happen from time to time through out the brood cycle, just mellow out, i thought my bees where swarming when i first seen it happen and i had only had them for a few hours and then it happened again a couple of weeks later, they where fine in the end and i have seen it happen many times since.

Regarding the entrance size i do not know what you have in place but i have seen a standard notional brood box jam packed with bees wall to wall cope fine with a 100mm entrance.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Hi new to keeping bees, so far everything been going ok untill I came down today,
Approaching my bee hive today there were thousands of bees around my hive trying to get in, looked like they were fighting, everything settling down now and there's hundreds of dead bees infront of the hive,
What's happening??

You've got some good beekeepers abound Sheffield. Could you ask one to mentor you? Expert eyes standing next to you can help a lot more than a group behind a keyboard.