Is this robbing?

Beekeeping - Basics
1

April (Autumn) in NSW Australia. Dearth - nothing much currently flowering. 3 month old hive, filling most of the 8 frames but little in the way of honey stores. Entrance reducer in place. Put an internal feeder in, using 2:1 syrup. Next morning, found the girls in a frenzy, buzzing in a huge cloud outside the entrance to the hive. Observed one short wrestling episode on the landing board, but nil else. Bees climbing up box, but not dipping on take-off. Some bees at box junctions outside, maybe smelling syrup. A few bees returning with pollen.

After dark, I closed off the hive completely. Next morning, about 2 hours after sunrise, with the hive still closed off, only 2 or 3 stragglers outside. No sign of any robbers. Opened up the hive, and bees boiled out again, in a cloud.

Is this robbing or just exuberance?

3 Likes
3

I love the video. What type of camera do you have?

Watching the bees wrestle in slow motion is pretty cool.

5

If there are no robbers the next morning showing up then they are not being robbed. A lot of bees will be hovering when the young bees do an orientation flight. They are not frenzied, but are very active.

1 Like
6

iPhone 6s, using Slo-Mo mode - 240 frames per second slowed down to 30 frames per seconds, so 8 times slower than real life.

2 Likes
7

Very cool! Thanks for posting.