Odd bee behaviour

[Tawny Owl]

Hi Guys, just need a bit of advice.

My bees have been doing fine so far but this evening just looking at the landing board they are 'crash landing' with quite a few of them completely missing the landing board or bouncing off it and sitting on the floor for a while before trying again. They are also bumping in to each other a lot more than usual. They look like they've been at the whisky tbh.

Seems to be the time of year for the crop sprayers to be out and about, could this be the cause? Or maybe they are just a bit knackered....

Brood volume has decreased a bit over the last week and not stored much in the last 7 days, both of which I put down to the rain. Other than that they seem ok in the hive.

Thanks for any words of wisdom.

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

Bees and toxic chemicals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


"Bees can suffer serious effects from toxic chemicals in their environments. These include various synthetic chemicals, such as insecticides and fertilizers, as well as a variety of naturally occurring chemicals from plants, such as ethanol resulting from the fermentation of organic material. Bee intoxication can result from exposure to ethanol from fermented nectar, ripe fruits, and manmade and natural chemicals in the environment.[1][2]
The effects of alcohol on bees are sufficiently similar to the effects of alcohol on humans that honey bees have been used as models of human ethanol intoxication.[3] However, the metabolism of bees and humans is sufficiently different that bees can safely collect nectars from plants that contain compounds toxic to humans. The honey produced by bees from these toxic nectars can be poisonous if consumed by humans. Many humans have eaten toxic honey and become seriously ill as a result.
Natural processes can also introduce toxic substances into nontoxic honey produced from nontoxic nectar. Microorganisms in honey can convert some of the sugars in honey to ethanol. This process of ethanol fermentation is intentionally harnessed to produce the alcoholic beverage called mead from fermented honey."

I wonder ? lots of Rhododendron in Flower at the moment.

 

[Tawny Owl]

Interesting. They are going to have such a bad day tomorrow....

 

[pargyle]

Could just be stuffed full of nectar ... a lot of mine, at present, look like they can barely fly when they get back to the hive let alone do the sort of hovering manouever they normally do as they come in to land - I just put it down to a heavy load ?

 

[BeeJayBee]

If they're completely full of nectar they can't easily flex their abdomen, so get a bit ungainly.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Could just be stuffed full of nectar ... a lot of mine, at present, look like they can barely fly when they get back to the hive let alone do the sort of hovering manouever they normally do as they come in to land - I just put it down to a heavy load ?

agree with Mr Argyle

 

[jd101k2000]

Yes, rather than a gentle hover/glide they are coming in with a splat at the moment.