- Joined
- Mar 27, 2012
- Messages
- 3,051
- Reaction score
- 1,496
- Location
- Suffolk
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 5
Lovely day, T 22C, so thought I'd lift my spirits by observing the activity of my five hives. However all the bees busily landing on and flying from the landing board of a polyhive were distinctly smaller than normal eg the bees in the adjacent hive. They were shorter and thinner but of similar colouring and shape. I guessed, maybe wrongly, each bee would weigh half the normal. One more difference: the customary cloud of bees waiting to land and enter the hive was much larger than the other hives.
I had neither bee suit nor camera so rushed home 600m distant and returned with two honey jars to capture samples from both hives for comparison.
You've guessed it: when I got back 15 mins later there were no small bees to be seen! Hive activity was the same as the others and a quick look under the crown board showed normal bees.
In my 50-odd years of beekeeping I've never witnessed this phenomenon before. I had wondered if my hive had been taken over by a different species ofMellifera Apis
Maybe these small bees were newly emerged and stretching their flight muscles? Grateful for your thoughts.
I had neither bee suit nor camera so rushed home 600m distant and returned with two honey jars to capture samples from both hives for comparison.
You've guessed it: when I got back 15 mins later there were no small bees to be seen! Hive activity was the same as the others and a quick look under the crown board showed normal bees.
In my 50-odd years of beekeeping I've never witnessed this phenomenon before. I had wondered if my hive had been taken over by a different species of
Maybe these small bees were newly emerged and stretching their flight muscles? Grateful for your thoughts.
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