# A colony purring, not humming?!

**URL:** <https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/a-colony-purring-not-humming/23763>\
**Category:** General Bee Chat\
**Tags:** hive-noise\
**Created:** [November 12, 2019, 11:29am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/a-colony-purring-not-humming/23763 "2019-11-12T11:29:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SnowflakeHoney](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/snowflakehoney/32/7036_2.png) [@SnowflakeHoney](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/SnowflakeHoney)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2019, 11:29am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/a-colony-purring-not-humming/23763/1 "2019-11-12T11:29:15Z")

</div>

Has anyone ever heard a colony “purring” (instead of humming) when you stand outside the hive and listen? I’m perplexed.

I’ll post a little background once I get a few initial responses if anyone has heard something like this. The background might give a bum steer to responses…as it could be coincidental and not related.

Cheers

Alan

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fffffred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@fffffred](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/fffffred)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2019, 1:05pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/a-colony-purring-not-humming/23763/2 "2019-11-12T13:05:21Z")

</div>

My bees don’t meow… they buzz at about 100hz-200hz. The frequency and amplitude goes up when I blow on them.

A purr is at a lower frequency sub 30hz… suggesting not many bees at home???

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SnowflakeHoney](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/snowflakehoney/32/7036_2.png) [@SnowflakeHoney](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/SnowflakeHoney)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2019, 1:16pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/a-colony-purring-not-humming/23763/3 "2019-11-12T13:16:14Z")

</div>

Frequency wouldn’t be impacted by quantity of bees. That would impact amplitude.

This one has me stumped, assuming my ears weren’t mishearing…I won’t get home early enough for an inspection for a few days…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aussiemike](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/aussiemike/32/14581_2.png) [@aussiemike](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/aussiemike)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 9:31am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/a-colony-purring-not-humming/23763/4 "2019-11-13T09:31:06Z")

</div>

Maybe you’re hearing the beat frequency between different parts of the colony humming at slightly different frequencies. Just a thought. I’d like to hear it, have you recorded it, Alan?

Mike

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SnowflakeHoney](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/snowflakehoney/32/7036_2.png) [@SnowflakeHoney](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/SnowflakeHoney)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 1:15pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/a-colony-purring-not-humming/23763/5 "2019-11-13T13:15:54Z")

</div>

That’s possible…

Unfortunately no recording and i haven’t been able to get out tonight. Hopefully tomorrow… but by then it probably won’t be happening…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KimM](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/kimm/32/18987_2.png) [@KimM](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/KimM)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 11:45am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/a-colony-purring-not-humming/23763/6 "2019-11-21T11:45:13Z")

</div>

There are lots of apps you can put on your phone to identify sound frequency, including most guitar tuners. It might help to have something like that for comparison between hives.