So i have noticed that my bees like to hang out around the entrance on the outside of my hive during the night. I had an entrance reducer in that had an inch opening. Today I switched it to the 4 inch opening and they still cover the opening like they did with the 1 inch in place. Is this normal?
Very normal on a warm night
Do you have a light shining on the hive? If so, they will often investigate. You may even find dead bees under the light.
I thinks its normal. I often pop out on our rooftop at night to kill the slugs that are attacking my bee friendly plants.
I put a small light on. Its quite funny because there are probably over 20k of bees in the hive and one bee will pop out on the landing board to see whats going on. I assume she is on security duty and just letting me know they are on guard.
I was concerned as well with mine. Here is no entrance reducer at all.
I was concerned as well with mine. Here is no entrance reducer at all. https://ride.smugmug.com/Honey-Bees/Untitled-Project-13/i-FtNL76W/A
This was taken about 4 AM
I’d like to know specifics like temperature when pics were taken. Up here in alaska its 40F at night or lower still and they never come out.
in my photo that morning it was 62° but looking at my flir camera. other morning with the girls hanging out like in the photo it was 54°.
@Beast9156, the temp outside was right around 60. In the morning it was 50ish and either they had gone inside or were out and about already as there wasn’t many outside.
Tim
This was last night, when it was around 75-80 outside.
9:30 PM about 80ish
10:30 PM about 75
@Martydallas I know you probably answered this before, but where did you get your camera?
Just hangin’ out on the porch!
The thermal imaging camera? It’s Made by Flir mine is for my iPhone you can buy it at an Apple store or online. They do make an android one as well. about $250
Amazon had the FLIR on sale just before Prime day for $170 USD. I should have jumped on it,…instead I’m back to watching for another flash sale or waiting till cyber monday rolls around.
They come out mainly because it is hot inside the hive. I don’t see them come out and beard in Virginia until it is about 70 degrees.
I live in a tropical climate zone in India and my bee are out at night at the hive gate mostly its due to the heat!!
Hi, I have been dealing with robbing, but also noticed that I have a few balls of bees outside. This was taken at 9.30pm after a small storm, while still raining slightly. The temp was about 26C.!
I was wondering if some of the robbers might be overnighting, or my girls just being more defensive.
Cheers.
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Hi Ian, I’m unable to view the photo. If you have robbing, I think you should reduce the entrance. You can safely reduce it to 4 inches (100mm).
Normally weak colonies get robbed. If your colony is weak, you could reduce the entrance down to even 1.5 inches. See how that goes.
Hey Ian, to upload a pic the 7th icon across the top with the arrow up needs to be moused and then select the photo and upload it. I for one of many would like to see it. Any robber bees would be back at their own hive by that time, I would think along the lines of the hives own bee being ready for any more fighting, or just hanging out in the cooler evening letting the colony recover from the overheating of the day. Warwick can be as hot as hell in Summer.
Welcome to the forum and the support of those here.
Cheers
I assumed that they had made it through the first check point, but hadn’t gotten any of the goods, hence the retry.
So now I have added a clearer I made with a swinging mesh door and attached it to the top left entrance. This seems to have settled things down behind the screen even more, as the few robbers that make it into this area are not trapped there but can escape. Also any of mine that leave this way know their way back through the other entrance. It all seems to be working out and I can see plenty of pollen laden bees entering in between fights at the door when robbers try.
I also have a bit of video footage and I will post link for that when I get home.
Cheers, Ian
Here’s a shot from the daytime - now I’ve figured out the upload thingy. 
and as promised, the videos are here for anyone interested…
Cheers, Ian
