Today I was looking at my bees and noticed something very interesting, several of them were “kissing” the wood of the hive entrance in a repeated way. Anybody knows what they are doing and is this normal?
You can see it on this video:
Also, wanted to show something I’m experimenting to remove beetles safely from my hive.
I really appreciate your feedback!
its called “Washboarding”, not much is this known about this activity but one belief is that it is a housekeeping duty being performed by nurse bees that are not needed inside the hive and too young to progress to foragers and so do the housework in cleaning the entrance and external surfaces of the hive.
Thanks for asking the question and posting the video. My bees were doing that too and I suspected they were cleaning. Also thanks for everyone that answered Pablo, your answers helped me too.
It isn’t really bearding. Bearding bees usually keep still to minimize their heat generation. Your bees are “washboarding” as @Rodderick says. Nobody knows why, but it is usually adolescent bees that do it. Maybe they are “working out” to build up their muscles before they start the strenuous duties of foraging! There is a very nice short video about it here:
Yes, my mistake, I was having trouble remembering the term “Wash Boarding” so all I could come up with was bearding. Sorry for the mis-info, but they are right not me.
Great feedback from everyone and awesome videos @Dawn_SD and @Bobby_Thanepohn !
These creatures are definitely super interesting and fun to watch.
Anybody has tips on how to control proactively and efficiently the beetles?