Bees making a fuss. Is this usual late afternoon behaviour or were they bearding or fending off an attack?

[admanga]

Late afternoon, there were many more bees outside the hive than ever seen before, perhaps 100 in the air, and many congregating on the stand just below the entrance. These were probably not orientation flights, which were evident early this morning. What was unusual was that many flew under the hive and its stand. It has an open mesh floor. Was this robbing? The few bees fanning at the entrance were not perturbed by the fuss. None were washboarding. While 10 cm below the entrance on the stand, the bees were rushing around madly, but I could not see fighting or the queen among them (keeping a few metres away). Over a 15 minute period, the bees calmed down and went back to work!

In the photo, the step in the hive is explained by it being a Dadant brood box recently mated to a Warre brood box. There is no Dadant entrance despite the existence of the entrance grill. Eventually, the bees will need to build downwards.

(Another one of my hives was evicting drones today)

 

[enrico]

Normal, a quick change in temp/pressure will get them all returning at the same time, just check underneath to make sure they are not clustering underneath if it is an OMF floor. Sometimes they underfly and then don't understand why they can't get in.

 

[ericbeaumont]

probably not orientation flights

Probably were: the photo shows flying bees facing the hive, in typical orientation mode.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Probably were: the photo shows flying bees facing the hive, in typical orientation mode.

I second that I agree with Eric.
Also a second observation the positioning you can see the bees exiting the hive leans to orientation