The last day or two, we have been noticing some different behavior in front of my hive. It seemed like there were a lot of bees hanging around on the front, as well as more than the normal amount of bees flying in front of the hive. It has been hot, so I kind of figured maybe the bees were cooling off.
And, I got the latest copy of copy of Bee Culture magazine. The picture on the front cover kind of looked like what was going on with my hive. It shows a lot of bees along the bottom board, more on the front of the hive and even more flying in front. The description says that they are young bees in an orientation flight to help them learn where they are in relation to nearby landmarks. So I thought maybe that was what was happening with mine. But I thought it was kind of odd that this behavior was happening in front of my hive, but not Rod's, since we got our bees at the same time and so far, they have been progressing at about the same rate.
So last night, about 7:45 p.m., we went out to feed the bees by adding more syrup to the top feeders. And I guess I was kind of startled when I looked at my hive. Here is a picture:
After watching for awhile, we could see that some of the bees were fighting. A bee would land on the front of the hive, and several other bees would immediately "pounce" on that bee, and there would be a lot of angry sounding buzzing. Also, there were areas that looked like a bee pig pile - a whole bunch of bees on top of each other. There was robbing going on! Here is a video of what we saw. Please click on the little triangle on the left to start the video:
You can see a couple of bees fighting, up to the left of the lower handle. And more below, along the bottom board. Also, you can see Rod's hive for comparison. His hive is usually what my hive looks like at that time of day.
After quickly looking in our bee books for advice, we closed off the top entrances and stuffed grass in the bottom entrances of both hives, so no one could get in or out. Today, after talking to Jim at Beez Neez, we took out the grass and used two boards on each hive to reduce the entrance. Here is what my hive looks like now:
You can see the boards Rod cut and put in to reduce the entrance. So far, it looks like things have calmed down some. I just took a look, and didn't see any more of the fighting behavior - just bees coming, going and flying. This is more like what we normally see at this time of day.
I read in one of the bee books that I have, that robbing could cause you to lose your hive - that all the bees end up dying from defending the hive. I hope that we have caught this in time and nothing happens to Queen Latifah and all the girls.
If you read this and have some ideas or comments, please leave them. We are new at this and would love to have input and suggestions!
3 comments:
Thanks for the video, I've been wondering what robbing looked like! Cindy from Bothell.
Putting the entrance reducer on was probably the best thing you could do.
When your bees have orientation flights dont be supprised if you dont see it happening at both hives at the same time, I have four hives and they were hived at the same time, they are not in sync with each other and activity varies a lot between all four day to day even hour to hour.
my hive was being robbed too. i could actually see the difference in their appearance as well as behavior. i had just added the inner cover for the extra hole because i thought they were hot too. a day later....the robbers, and alot of dead bees out front. so i removed the extra entrance. today i went back and the robbers are still looking around in the area of the missing entrance but hardly any of my bees are paying attention to them. i would like to add some kind of extra ventilation for them in this heat, but am afraid of other bees coming around again.
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