Bees freaking out - why? Help please!

[ksjs]

Time to do a course
Still won't help Actually, you should learn a lot, but the bees attend them all, and read all the books, then try to catch you out.

We thought we had done a reasonable about of prep before we started, and we're constantly coming up with Why? What? When? Ohh Nooo! what have we let ourselves in for and some times hurray and aren't they cute/fascinating/clever....

I get the feeling from some quarters that I've broken some unwritten rule i.e. Thou Shalt Go On a Beekeeping Course Before Owning Bees! Glad to hear someone else say that a course isn't the be all and end all.

 

[ksjs]

Any help much appreciated.

All quiet on the western front. Still surprised how active they are for a heavy drizzle day, seems to be quite a few coming back with pollen. Thanks all for help, much appreciated.

 

[huntsman666]

<Glad to hear someone else say that a course isn't the be all and end all.>

Of course not but it will make you a much more knowledgeable and successful beekeeper plus add to the enjoyment.

A lot of questions here are exceptionally basic (no harm with that as we all started somewhere) and would be covered in any beekeeping course, so it can only help.

I'm glad doctors and pilots go on courses, aren't you?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Doctors (and vets for that matter)
It's like doing "join the dots" in an anatomy book
You know what to do only when you've had your hands in a few times.
Beekeeping is much more fun and less intimidating once you've done that AS for the nth time, you know why you do it and you can do it in your sleep;...and you do.....do it in your sleep ......beekeep in your sleep,that is

 

[Moggs]

ksjs - a course indeed 'isn't' the be all and end all. However, I have found that the valuable introduction (for me at least) was a major factor that influenced a comfortable and reasonably successful year at the outset. A great many hours of study of the classic and other texts (most of my spare time for about eight months before we took control of the first charges) was equally useful. The potential for panic and perhaps bad beekeeping decisions and actions is greatly reduced with adequate preparation.

Believe me, there is so much that the bees will teach us and it is a very experienced and wise beekeeper that will profess to know it all (such a person will be vastly overestimating their ability too)! However, the bees won't hang about once they have made a decision and that is what catches many inexperienced beekeepers out. Forewarned is forearmed, if you will.

This forum and any local beekeeping buddies should keep you on the right track. Enjoy those bees.

 

[Elaine]

I liken it to sailing - a very experienced instructor once told us that the difference between the new sailor and the experienced is how quickly they see the potential problem and how quickly they stop it getting any worse. The new comer knows in theory what happens and what to do - they just don't recognise the situation as quickly, which makes it harder to stop the world unravelling!

 

[huntsman666]

The conundrum is that it's only those who haven't done a course say a course is of little or no benefit.

How do they know???

 

[ksjs]

The conundrum is that it's only those who haven't done a course say a course is of little or no benefit.

How do they know???

I'm not saying a course is of no benefit and I have no doubt it will be invaluable to me. In the context of once sacrosanct practices and beliefs now being defunct, vastly experienced and resourced keepers inexplicably losing hives and the fact that bees have been kept successfully using many different techniques I do however question its primacy.

Perhaps though I will have a totally different view once my bees have fled and / or I've completed a course and realise how little I knew?

 

[huntsman666]

When do you think varroa arrived in (excuse the expression) the British Isles?

 

[Poly Hive]

All right all how do you know it is orientation flights?

PH

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I liken it to sailing - a very experienced instructor once told us that the difference between the new sailor and the experienced is how quickly they see the potential problem and how quickly they stop it getting any worse. The new comer knows in theory what happens and what to do - they just don't recognise the situation as quickly, which makes it harder to stop the world unravelling!

Having just navigated down the Western Solent and seeing the droves of WAFI's causing havoc I doubt it's a good comparison!!

KSJS I had a wet windy day at home the other day but yes, mid afternoon (which seems to be the usual time for my bees' orientation flights) they were much more manic than usual - so noisy I thought for a minute they were about to swarm - must be brief respite in the bad weather made them more excited?

 

[Poly Hive]

"I'm not saying a course is of no benefit and I have no doubt it will be invaluable to me. In the context of once sacrosanct practices and beliefs now being defunct, vastly experienced and resourced keepers inexplicably losing hives and the fact that bees have been kept successfully using many different techniques I do however question its primacy. "

There is a lot of shall we politely say debatable material in there and I am happy to challenge most of it, esp as I took courses in my time....as in I taught.

Some will indeed manage fine without a course esp in these days of instant "advice" most of it well meaning but not always helpful.

My experience was that having done the theory, the practical came as more than a little shock. And the biggest part of that oddly enough was the noise of the bees flying.

PH

 

[Headnavigator]

My experience was that having done the theory, the practical came as more than a little shock. And the biggest part of that oddly enough was the noise of the bees flying.

PH

Have to say the sounds were what I was least prepared for and find really fascinating, from piping to the sound of a diesel loco going through a station at speed. I'll learn to interpret them one day (perhaps!)

 

[huntsman666]

<All right all how do you know it is orientation flights?>

Duh! Because of the tiny maps and compasses.

Seriously though, orientation flights take place when the sun is high and lasts an hour or so. Bees fly first very close to the face of the hive as though asking 'What's that? What's that?' and committing to memory. Gradually they move away a little further and do the same until they have remembered enough about the hive and entrance and venture a little further away until eventually they can venture out into the fields.

Keep in mind, these are also 'learning how to fly' flights and can take place three or so days before she actually becomes a field bee.

A lovely sight for a beekeeper and one of the external signs that things are fine inside.

 

[Flatters]

My big hive in the garden went a bit manic today for about half and hour. It has been a miserable wet day and this evening there was a break and some warmth so out the came in force.

In respect of courses I did my basic last year over 2 days, howver we were also required to attend the club apiary for eight sundays and do hive inspections in groups. The inspections were perhaps the most valuable part but the theory gave you a base knowledge.

 

[Phil280]

Hi there.

We have Beek-schools and after a certain amount of time and a number of courses and exams you can officially become a craftsman and master craftsman of bee keeping.
As far as I know this is the only country in the world that has this type of schooling.
Generally beeks here say that for the first 10 years of being a beek you are a beginner
I learn new things every time I visit my girls. But what I have found is that bees are very forgiving. You can swap their homes, their queens, take bees out and put some back, split colonies and move them about and they will keep on with their lives and sort out the mess and chaos you have just left them with.
A few of the most important things I have learnt from my bees are: Work with natures flow, take your time and don't panic!...

From experience I can say that here it is usually the beeks that have 20+ years of beek-experience are the ones that start working sloppy.

Greets
Phil

 

[Poly Hive]

The memorable answer is Bees Flying Backwards.

Sorry Phil but no you are not unique at all. All the UK countries have a similar set up with exams.

As for sloppy, I must be pure liquid then...

PH

 

[huntsman666]

Phil, this is what's available in Ireland. Very close I think to what's also available in the U.K.

http://irishbeekeeping.ie/education/education.html

 

[richardbees]

ksjs

it looks like it was just "orientation flights"

- and please don't let this opprobrium stop you posting any other questions you might have!

Richard

 

[oliver90owner]

Ahh, so bees only learn to fly at about 18 days, eh? New one, that, for me.

Surprising how the wrong facts that are learned from a forum such as this. Especially the basics of the hive life.

I always thought 4 days was about the very earliest they started to fly (unless they learn inside the hive). Would certainly be needing to be doing orientating flights or they may get lost.

Never knew it was only bees nearly three weeks old that went with a swarm either (only bees that know how to fly).

Hello, something doesn't add up here.....I must some need to repeat a course or two.