feeding during dearth produces aimless bees

[dmcdonald]

I've been open-feeding my hives over the last few days, because we've had exceedingly warm weather here, and I suspect my hives are low on stores to begin with.

Feeding at a time like this, when there's no forage whatsoever, seems to cause a lot of bees to go flying around aimlessly--two of my neighbors commented on the large number of roving bees. And I've seen them too. They're just wandering around.

I don't think this has happened when I've fed inside the hives. It seems to be when I open-feed or feed using Boardman feeders. But I don't remember exactly--it could be that any dearth feeding has had this effect.

I wondered if others have seen this. Any idea of why they behave this way? I'm guessing they get excited about the feed and figure that there must be enormous amounts of food elsewhere too, and go out looking for it. It's a little disconcerting to me, though, to have so many errant bees visiting my bee-illiterate neighbors. I never see that during the foraging season.

[Jerry C]

Bees can be a real nuisance on warm days in the fall. They appear to me to be looking for something to rob. I see them hanging around stacks of supers and investigating buildings looking for an opening to get in. Fall is about the only time you would know there were hives around our house. http://www.beesource.com/ubb/smile.gif

[clintonbemrose]

I hope my bees are flying around looking for nector, pollon and water it shows they are looking even in a darth and not being lazy and just sitting on the porch.
Clint

------------------
Clinton Bemrose
just South of Lansing Michigan
Beekeeping sence 1964

[jfischer]

> seems to cause a lot of bees to go flying
> around aimlessly

To the bees, it is not aimless. To them,
the dearth is over, and they are hedging
their bets, looking for an alternate
nectar source. They won't find one, but
they will search further than usual, since
they expect to find something ELSE blooming.

> I don't think this has happened when
> I've fed inside the hives.

Perhaps it doesn't happen as much.
I don't have any hard data, but outside
the hive means dancing, and dancing is
a wonderfully sloppy method of giving
a vector and a distance to another bee,
so (as a natural result of "error") some
bees will be off target slightly, and
will be not going directly to your
single-point feeder. Plants tend to grow
in wide areas, not in single points.

> I wondered if others have seen this.

It is to be expected.

> ...figure that there must be enormous
> amounts of food elsewhere too, and go
> out looking for it.

Exactly. Bees want to have multiple
sources, so the hive can "compare" them,
and choose the "best" at any one time of
day.

> It's a little disconcerting to me, though, > to have so many errant bees visiting my
> bee-illiterate neighbors.

If the bees become a problem, then give
the bees what they expect - multiple
nectar sources spread over an area,
with slight variations in sugar content
and "time of availability". Give them
several smaller feeders to "find".

[Tia]

I don't know if you guys are going to believe this, but my bees are bringing in pollen.

[Ian]

Spring and fall are always the "complaint" seasons for me as a beekeeper. Nothing I can do about it. The problem is that they are mostly complaining about wasps, and not bees!! Suprising how many people lable "bees" to every sting they get.
Anyway my bee do pose a nusance during spring and fall, before the main spring bloom, and after the last fall flow. You can help settle the bees a bit in the spring by setting pollen out in the yard for them, and in the fall insuring the hives are content with honey/sugar stores for winter

Ian

[Curry]

My bees are also bringing in pollen. In fact, this makes every single month of the year that I've seen my bees bring in pollen... I saw it even in this last January. I just wish they had that much access to nectar...

[SippyBees]

Yep... mine are hauling pollen also. Flying quite a bit also during the day.... am feeding some small singles internally.... maybe should start worrying about winter stores if they keep up this activity on into Jan.... but almost everything I have had a SOLID full deep of honey over another deep box.... so that SHOULD keep them until 1st of Mar... I HOPE