Very windy today. Almost Zero bee activity. Is this normal?

I didn’t have time to get into my yard hive today, but can see it from my dining room and saw very very little bee activity from a normally very busy hive. If they didn’t swarm, do they stay in the hive in high winds? Thanks.

Hi Dusty, I’m thinking that’s it’s too late in the season for your bees to be swarming.

I would think that high winds would reduce the bees activity. It would make life difficult for them to accurately communicate & receive the destinations of the pollen & nectar via the waggle dances. I would imagine that a lot of bees get lost & run out of fuel before reaching their destinations during these conditions. So therefore unable to make a payload to make it back.

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Yep.

A bee flies out to forage at about 15mph, and returns at about 20mph, according to Tom Seeley. If the winds are higher than that, they won’t make it home, so they never leave the hive. They also HATE it if you open the hive on a very windy day. :blush:

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Agreed. My observation is bees are more likely to fly with some rain present than with high winds. My bees are also grumpier on windy days than cold days…

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It’s interesting to note that after a bee witnesses a waggle dance, then she decides to go on that journey to gather the specified nectar, she only takes enough fuel to do the one way trip. With that in mind, it’s easy to see how high winds would upset things & cause a bee to not reach the destination. Therefore leaving her stranded with no fuel to fly or do anything to save herself.

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They stay in when it’s windy, when it’s raining in fact any time it’s difficult to fly

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Yes. Today though it is windy it is not nearly so. There is much greater activity today. Thank you to all who responded.

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