Robbing?

[gwt_uk]

Hello all,

There was a lot of was a huge amount of activity outside two of my hives this afternoon. I didn’t see any fighting but the bees were queueing up to get in and there were a lot of bees around the outside of the entrance. There was the odd bee around the roof but it didn’t look like the bees were robbing but the activity was quite frenetic. No sign of any dead bees. Some bees were bringing pollen in and i was watching them just after a rain shower.

I though all was ok but now have a niggle that it could have been robbing. Any thoughts?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Orientation flights, early afternoon is a favourite time. If you watch carefully you’ll see bees walking about in the front of the hive. Some bees fly out and back. Some will fly further round the hive and back.
Robbing bees dart about the front of the entrance. It’s quite different.
in the midst of this there are bees leaving the hive in a straight line out foraging.
Have a look at Storch. “At the hive entrance”. A lovely little book you can get free online or as a little pamphlet from booksellers.

 

[GuyNir]

Same here. Sun came out and lots of activity at the entrance. Many colonies are out for orientation flight.

 

[gwt_uk]

Orientation flights, early afternoon is a favourite time. If you watch carefully you’ll see bees walking about in the front of the hive. Some bees fly out and back. Some will fly further round the hive and back.
Robbing bees dart about the front of the entrance. It’s quite different.
in the midst of this there are bees leaving the hive in a straight line out foraging.
Have a look at Storch. “At the hive entrance”. A lovely little book you can get free online or as a little pamphlet from booksellers.

Just saw a video of orientation flights on the Apiarist.org and it looked very similar to why I was seeing today. Thanks