Bees Washboarding

[Sugar Water]

Can anyone explain to me why bees do this back and forth motion outside the hive? It's sometimes called washboarding.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbwumXVTOz8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbwumXVTOz8[/ame]

 

[Blue Spinnaker]

Am so pleased to see this thread - I've seen some of mine doing this and didn't know what was going on....have been searching, at least I know what to look for now.

 

[Sugar Water]

I have seen a few video clips on You**be of bees washboarding and find it amazing and totally bemusing why they would do this.

Do they know something we don't know or are they painting the hive lol.

 

[Lance Hutchings]

Wax on , Wax off ? ...

 

[MrB]

Thanks for the clip, never seen that before, how facinating

 

[Dishmop]

They look like policemen searching for clues...

 

[Sugar Water]

They look like policemen searching for clues...

Wax on , Wax off ? ...

Ha Haaaa!!!

 

[Sugar Water]

I cant understand why in this clip the bees have only decided to do this on one chosen super on both sides and not all the hive, strange.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt1cTs7k95M"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt1cTs7k95M[/ame]

 

[Norton]

Bees do this when the honeyflow is slowing down or over.

 

[Alabamaeee]

I've not seen any UK videos of this phenomenon yet.

Could it be that these yankee bees have their own form of line dancing

 

[nematode]

I have just read John Rawson's "World of the Bee Farmer". It's a great book. In the book he wrote that he observed a similar dance during, or at the end of ( i can't remember which; must look at the book again), the lime flow.

 

[kazmcc]

Maybe it's a happy dance? Just bees feeling smug at the height of the season.

 

[ElectricBlueBee]

I think it's a Harvest Dance. Look for for little loaves made to look like sheaves of corn, and tins of green beans brought in by the younger bees. Maybe the queen wearing a cassock leading the dance?

 

[The Riviera Kid]

With regard to the second video...

The clue perhaps is where the bees are - i.e. over a crack between two supers. They're systematically moving and fanning to draw hot air and moisture evaporated from the honey out of the hive.

The lady says that she has offset the super for ventilation and I reckon the bees are just taking advantage of that. It's the only one that she has done this for. All the other boxes look to be aligned.

I suspect that they are moving in unison to maximise this effect.

If you look in Hooper's Guide To Bees And Honey on page 36, you will see a pic of this and a short description.

 

[kazmcc]

The clue is where the bees are - i.e. over a crack between two supers. They're systematically moving and fanning to draw hot air and moisture evaporated from the honey out of the hive.

The lady says that she has offset the super for ventilation and I reckon the bees are just taking advantage of that. It's the only one that she has done this for. All the other boxes look to be aligned.

I suspect that they are moving in unison to maximise this effect.

If you look in Hooper's Guide To Bees And Honey on page 36, you will see a pic of this and a short description.

Dammit! You beat me to it heh heh

He told me what they were doing and I said I was going to come on here and pretend I found out aaaaaaaallll on my own lol

 

[The Riviera Kid]

Dammit! You beat me to it heh heh

He told me what they were doing and I said I was going to come on here and pretend I found out aaaaaaaallll on my own lol

Hehehe!! Sorry Kaz!! I'm no expert so I could be wrong! I am just speculating on the basis of what I could see. I saw my bees do something similar on one of my hives when I had to use and old super temporarily. The bottom edge of one side was damaged and left a large crack between it and super beneath that was *just* too narrow for a bee to pass through along the whole length of the super.

One hot day I came to replace it with a new super I'd made and saw them at it!

 

[keith pierce]

Its a new one on me, never seen or heard of it.