Pollen colours and toilet duty's

[Curly green fingers]

Hi folks, on the 3 rd of Nov my hive was really busy pollen going in to my hive. Gorse, and ivy but there was white pollen to could this be asters/ chrysanthemum flowers? Also there was lots of bee's flying out of hive circling round hive then landing back on the door step going in to hive then coming back out all exited. could this be orientation or toilet duties. There was hundreds doing this. It was sunny and still and 13 degrees out side . I recorded it on my phone but I'm unable to up load the attachment cheers c

 

[enrico]

Without wishing to sound too facetious, it could be anything that gives white pollen at is time of the year!
If your hive is still brooding then could well be orientation flight. Mine all come out together just as the temperature hits the right degree for them.
E

 

[Kenson]

I've noticed these behaviours. Pollen gathering this late in the year, I had not expected this, observed mine doing it at 7.5°c. But they were. Several colours. My guess is, that's what they do, if there's pollen, they go get it.

I have noticed that if they have a supply of Ambrosia the proportion of bees collecting pollen goes up noticeably to ~90%, if they run out of Ambrosia it can fall to ~10%. It seems to me that they very much know what to bring in proportion.

The daily "Out flights", toilet flights / orientation flights I love observing these, I have been there when they start and you just become aware of "all these bees" that weren't here 5 minutes ago, and then I think, "Yes there have been more coming out than going in", they fly around for a while, but I can see them going in and coming out, I think it's different bees taking turns and then after 20 minutes or half an hour, they're mostly gone and I just see the normal "coming and going".

Lovely.

 

[Curly green fingers]

Hi kenson . I agree there's something magical about watching the bee's do this behaviour. I observed them doing this a lot over the summer but I didn't quite no what they were doing. At least I know now. What is ambrosia? My grandad never used that .

 

[Teemore]

What is ambrosia? My grandad never used that .

Ambrosia is a brand of commercially produced liquid bee feed. A gross simplification is that it is a pre-mixed syrup. Other variations on the same theme are Api-Suc, Invert-Bee etc.

Sometimes when you cost buying sugar in bulk plus preparation time, it is more cost effective to buy the liquid bee feed rather than mix up your own feed from scratch. if you only have one or two hives of honeybees, you are probably just as well stocking up on cheap sugar over the year and making your own 2:1 syrup for Autumn feeding.

 

[Kenson]

I'm sure there's loads, and I did consider it would be fun making my own syrup, but my Beekeeping association does it so cheap, and I thought as a "Beginner" it would be sensible to minimise the risks.

One or two of the BBKA (Beds) said that it has "other things in it", that are beneficial (I don't know what, I have read about recipes' with Tea Tree, Wintergreen and other things).

Then I attended the NBU visit about "Disease", and they said "Absolutely not", no "Tea Tree", No "Wintergreen", No nothing.

I am quite adventurous with my bees, I'm not scared of trying things out, but my Scientist says "Only vary one thing at a time, or you don't know what had the desired effect" and I agree with him, so this was one thing I decided to "stick with the program" on.

I don't want to be standing over the Hive (Nucleus) in March thinking "I wonder which of the 80 different things I tried killed them"