Creeping Bees

[Toni Bee]

Hi all --

It got real cold here, then today was pretty warm, and the bees came out...to creep!

It seems like lots of bees were flying, but all over the flat roof where my colonies are located, there were dozens and dozens of bees just creeping around. Some even crawled into puddles and drowned (though I also fished a bunch out).

What up? Why did they come out to stroll? Is this evidence of illness? When raking leaves yesterday, they were buzzing around and checking me out. Maybe they just had cabin fever and needed to stretch their legs?

Thanks for your patience with these whacko questions!

[odfrank]

My guess - hatched bees that are damaged by mites coming out for their first and last time.

[SilverFox]

No question asked is 'whacko' it is the ones not asked that are crazy.
Sounds like maybe sick bees or old ones.
Check out their wings and see if they are 'ratted' or look closely with a magnifing glass for mites. They'd be a little smaller than the period.

[Michael Bush]

Are we just talking about them bearding on the front of the hive or crawling off in the grass to die? IF they are crawling off in the grass to die in any significant numbers I would look for other problems like Varroa mites or Tracheal mites. Are there "K" wing bees? Are there deformed (shriveled) winged bees. Are these bees old and shiny have frayed wings? Have you done any kind of assesement for Varroa? Sticky board? Sugar roll?

[Toni Bee]

hi there --

The bees have been through both menthol and ApiLife Var treatment this Fall, and luckily there were no k-wings or wing deformations that I could see. The wings may have been ragged: I can check again tomorrow. I'll try to get a picture or tow as well.

The numbers are maybe in the coupla hundred total range. Not really sure how to judge it, but since they have had to be in the cluster for the first time in the season for several days on end, I wonder if it just looks like a lot of bee loss because it is a whole week's worth at once.

Even so, I hate to lose them, knowing that there will be no more brood for months.

[Barry Digman]

Can you tell whether they're drones or workers?

[Tia]

That happened to me after a fashion the other day. I had a field feeder out with honey in it and even though they don't usually venture out in weather as cool as it was that day, I think the lure of the honey was too much for them. They flew to the feeder and then were too cold to fly back. The weather's been weird. 60 or 70 degrees one day and 40 to 50 the next. I've changed over to Boardman feeders now because it looks like we're in for a cold spell. . .

[Toni Bee]

They were workers, and taking a look today, there is no wing deformation, though some are damaged. Since this is a time of relative dearth, I wonder if there has been some fighting. Maybe they are the last of the summer bees, since we had warm weather as late as 12 days ago.

There are just a handful walking about today, with strong weather coming in this afternoon. Maybe these are also the accumulated bees from a week or more in the cluster, or perhaps these bees are more evident on a roof than they would be in grass. This is one of those things that will come clear next year, when either the colonies have survived (or not) the winter, or I see creeping again in the fall. This beekeeping thing is a bit like a suspense novel: you don't get to know what it going on until the bees get to the right place where they want to show you.

[ November 29, 2005, 11:08 AM: Message edited by: Toni Bee ]

[Propolis30]

I had a hive do something similar 2 years ago. I got advice through this forum to give them sugar water mixed with spearmint oil. I fed them like 25 pounds of sugar this way!!!! Worked great too. A week later they looked like happy healthy bees again.

[B100B101]

I may be just a newbee, but I'm wondering if the phenomenon of climate/weather change is stressing our honey bees.

Record-breaking numbers of hurricanes (more powerful than ever before, too), tsunamis, earthquakes... all bad stuff for every living thing on our planet.

This week, in New York City, where my bees live in a rooftop hive, it went from 30 degrees to 65 degrees and back to 30 degrees in 48 hours,

The poor bees thought it was a second Springtime, went out foraging, and then got frozen.

But all is not lost. Most of my colony is hanging in there and eating 2:1 sugar syrup.

It's time for our President and our government to wake up and realize that global warming/climate changes are REAL.

[Michael Bush]

There have always been climate changes and the bees seem to adjust. Let's face it. Buying a package from Georgia and installing them in a hive in Minnesota is quite a climate chamge. smile.gif

It's time for the local farmers to wake up and realize that cutting down all the tree rows is not a good idea ESPECIALLY when the climate is changing and we've had a drought for the last five years. No one remembers the Dust Bowl. It was not something you wanted your favorite football team to play in. Now if Hoover or FDR would have just signed the Kyoto treaty...

[Jerry Simmons]

Yes! Climate changes are real. And they did happen when there were no people. They would happen and continue to happen if there were no people.

In this part of the country we had 30 degree temp changes every twentyfour hours all summer. 90's by day 60's by night.

Yesterday it was 80F. last night was in the low 20's. Today will get up to near 50. Then back down in the twenties.

Fluctuations are nothing to the bees. And if they are use to the climate they live in, they probably expected it before you did.

[Aspera]

For a good summary of when, and how drastically the climate has begun changing, check out the NOAA web page. Appearently our goverment has kept very accurate climatic data since its inception.