Odd robbing behavior, what'm I seeing here?!

[Ben Brewcat]

When I got home today, as usual, I strolled down by the hives. Again as usual fair flight, girls coming and going at their usual pace, seemed like some rain coming tonight, no biggie. Then like 15 minutes later, I happened to look out a window overlooking the hives and WHOA! The air's full of bees in front of the hive, looks like a late spring morning's orientation flights but even heavier. Looking straight up in the air I could see maybe 40 bees at a time; it's 7 PM and they're usually tapering off well by now. The traffic is easily five times what it was a minute ago, and the air's just ALIVE. Then I notice the entrance on the one hive, two or three deep in bees. Bees crawling up the front to take off (clue there), lots coming and going. I didn't see any fighting on the landing board though!

This is the craziest I've ever seen an entrance! I use a SBB and a screened ventilation box on top, so I've never seen bearding, but that's not what it looked like. Plus it was SO sudden, it's kinda creeped me out.

I requeened this hive on Friday, there were no swarm cells and I removed the old queen. It's a hive I've been feeding in a hivetop for some time, a populous healthy hive. It was calm all weekend. After seeing what was happening, I turned a sprinkler on it in the lawn and will put a robbing screen on after dark. Any ideas what happened? Can robbing start that fast?

[power napper]

Don't know Ben--however I would put my ear close to the hive this evening and listen to the tone of the bees--are the bees in this hive making the same sound as the other hives?

[Exquisite Bee]

I had a similar experience with a hive and a new queen.....She actually decided, after she got out of the cage, that she didn't like the hive.....She escaped out the front, went under the lid to the hive next to her own and stayed there.....I picked her up, put her back in front the entrance, she went inside for about 10 seconds, turned around and decided to leave again!!! I then put her on the top of the hive body, next to the excluder....but she didn't like that either, next day she hit the TRAIL and was gone. It was a Carnolian. Something in the hive was not to her tastes.....Could it be that your new queen already got out of her cage and decided to leave?

[newbeekincolo]

hey Ben this is newbeek down here south of alamosa you responded to a question of mine the other day . problem is im about as computer literate as i am bee savvy. any way i tried to respond to you but i guess you didnt get my message.im the one looking for a good alternative to the italians i now have, do you think theres still enough time for a split to do much buildup this late in the season??

[Ben Brewcat]

Could be; depends on your elevation and a bunch of other things. It's kinda late for starting off new colonies, but if you'd be willing to baby them maybe. Consider starting a new thread for a new topic, that way a lot more people (people a lot savvier than I) will get a shot at it!

I did get a couple PMs from you but didn't see the split question in them... I'll defer that to more experienced beeks. Good luck!

[Ben Brewcat]

Power, I haven't eared down on it (good idea), but all the other signs are pretty typical and the ambient noise was of heavier flight but not off-pitch, if you catch my drift. This morning heavy pollen foraging and good, normal flight.

These were EZBZ cages with a good ole plug of candy, seemed like a few day's worth of releasing feasting smile.gif . I would speculate that she's still caged. I did wait an hour after removing the old queenie before introducing the cage, and girls started immediately feeding on the honey I'd applied to the cage (no biting), seemed amicable enough. I'll check in this weekend on day seven.

[JBird]

Ben, I have observed the exact same phenomenon the past three nights from one of my hives. I'm convinced it's *not* robbing but rather some sort of orientation flight. Every time it's happened, it lasts maybe 10-15mins.

[Ben Brewcat]

Maybe it's a hazing ritual? :D