Bees going crazy

Beekeeping - Basics
1

I went out this afternoon with the intention of inspecting the hive. The enclosed video shows the bees very actively flying around the hive. I must admit I have never seen such activity. It did rain this morning and was unseasonably cool. When I went out for the inspection, the sun had finally come out. Were they just excited about the change in weather? Is this flurry of activity normal? I aborted the inspection. Was this the right thing to do?

2

I can’t download the video. When I try I get this message “Sorry, the file you are trying to upload is not authorized (authorized extensions: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, ico).” how do I download a video?

3

Could be a number of things, but most likely just bee orientation flights.

Don’t know why your vid won’t upload. Perhaps start a YouTube channel and use the link instead.

4

First you upload it to www.youtube.com then you post a link to the rendered video here. That makes it cross-platform friendly. :smile:

5

Ok. Here it is. I think…

2 Likes
6

Orientation flights: All is well.

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7

I agree with @Anon. Healthy hive, probably stronger than you are used to, just doing its thing. :blush:

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8

Thanks. I didn’t realize orientation flights occurred in a fairly established hive. When I put the bee package in the hive in mid April I observed that orientation behavior. I didn’t realize they repeated such behavior.

9

Hi Brick

As the bees live for only around 45 days in warmer weather, the replacing bees will all need to come out and do the flights. Nothing beats doing the deed themselves LOL

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10

Yep, each day 1000+ new bees become foragers.

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11

This happens with our (growing) hive often enough that we’ve started calling it ‘happy hour’. It happens for about 30-40 minutes sometime between 4:30-6:00 a couple times a week. We’ll grab a cold beverage and go sit amongst the swarm.

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12

Check a video on “Hive robbing” and see if it’s the same activity.Are they flying back and forth across the hive entrance looking for an opening, or fighting on the landing board?

13

I think they live for longer than that often enough- as I re-queened a hive a few moths ago with a light golden Italian queen. It’s been well over two months now and there are still plenty of the older darker bees left- but every day the proportion of yellow ones to dark ones is increasing.

14

Hi Jack

Yes, you are correct. I believe in winter, they will last much much longer as they will not fly out as often as in summer.

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15

I thought I would show my video of orientation flight on one of my hives.