AlpineJean
05-26-2005, 10:37 AM
Yesterday afternoon on a cool cloudy misty afternoon I saw a new behavior exhibited by my package bees.. It has been sunny and hot since they were installed 11 days ago.
There was a thin cloud of bees flying just out from the entrance and from just above the ground to about 5 feet in what looked like little spirals and whirls, occasionally one would go way up in circles and figure eights and then take off or return to the hive. Some of them would crawl up the side wall and then fall backwards to start their flight like a hive dive Olympian. There was no apparent aggression just milling about. The hum was a low freq. contented sound.
I was thinking that since it's been so hot maybe it's the first opportunity the ventilating cadre has had a chance to go out? Or, maybe some young bees were having a play/orienting flight?
I checked the swarm hive in case it was a general bee thing in that kind of weather and they were doing their usual regular activity.
Any thoughts?
There was a thin cloud of bees flying just out from the entrance and from just above the ground to about 5 feet in what looked like little spirals and whirls, occasionally one would go way up in circles and figure eights and then take off or return to the hive. Some of them would crawl up the side wall and then fall backwards to start their flight like a hive dive Olympian. There was no apparent aggression just milling about. The hum was a low freq. contented sound.
I was thinking that since it's been so hot maybe it's the first opportunity the ventilating cadre has had a chance to go out? Or, maybe some young bees were having a play/orienting flight?
I checked the swarm hive in case it was a general bee thing in that kind of weather and they were doing their usual regular activity.
Any thoughts?