dlawr42103
New Bee
- Joined
- May 25, 2013
- Messages
- 55
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- oxford
- Hive Type
- Commercial
- Number of Hives
- 8
Wondered if anyone can help explain some unusual activity I have spotted on 2 occasions at the hive:
I am new to bees, have a new hive which I have only had for 3 weeks.
I have a polycarb crown board and a camera in the top so I can watch what is going on without disturbing.
On 2 occasions now I have noticed the colony inside suddenly get very agitated and start running around the comb at speed, the level of noise dramatically increasing also. On the outside of the hive around 200 bees flying around in circles near the entrance, again appearing very agitated. Quite a lot of bees are still entering the hive, a few are still coming out... but most just seem to be flying in circles.
On the 2 occasions I have witnessed this it has only lasted for about 20 minutes.
The bees are usually very calm and busy collecting stores. The queen is present and busy, brood in all stages, plenty of room in the hive, good ventilation, currently still being fed... nothing unusual I can see in their other daily activities. Typically it is very quiet around the hive entrance, on average get ~30 return bees per minute with enter straight into the hive, with none hovering around the entrance.
On both occasions this has happened at around 3pm, which at my apiary is when it reached its peak temperature (although it had not been particularly hot, yesterday it peaked around 23oC). Also has coincided with falling humidity on both occasions and minimum daily humidity.
I was wondering if they are responding to some kind of robbing or predation. But there are no other honey bees for miles that I know of and have not seen any wasps. Or could this be a first flight of a group of young bees?
Any ideas please?... is this a common thing to see?
I am new to bees, have a new hive which I have only had for 3 weeks.
I have a polycarb crown board and a camera in the top so I can watch what is going on without disturbing.
On 2 occasions now I have noticed the colony inside suddenly get very agitated and start running around the comb at speed, the level of noise dramatically increasing also. On the outside of the hive around 200 bees flying around in circles near the entrance, again appearing very agitated. Quite a lot of bees are still entering the hive, a few are still coming out... but most just seem to be flying in circles.
On the 2 occasions I have witnessed this it has only lasted for about 20 minutes.
The bees are usually very calm and busy collecting stores. The queen is present and busy, brood in all stages, plenty of room in the hive, good ventilation, currently still being fed... nothing unusual I can see in their other daily activities. Typically it is very quiet around the hive entrance, on average get ~30 return bees per minute with enter straight into the hive, with none hovering around the entrance.
On both occasions this has happened at around 3pm, which at my apiary is when it reached its peak temperature (although it had not been particularly hot, yesterday it peaked around 23oC). Also has coincided with falling humidity on both occasions and minimum daily humidity.
I was wondering if they are responding to some kind of robbing or predation. But there are no other honey bees for miles that I know of and have not seen any wasps. Or could this be a first flight of a group of young bees?
Any ideas please?... is this a common thing to see?
