shimmering, unsettled bees during inspection?

[muskratcreekhoney]

When most of the bees shimmer all over the combs during inspection what does that tell you? I know when I see this in a mating nuc that I'm missing a queen. But in this case I have a full size hive. However, the queen either lost her numbered disk or is a supersedure queen. She is swollen up like a laying queen, and not running around like a virgin. I didn't see her lay nor could I find any eggs. I did find one partial frame of young larvae. The goldenrod is starting to bloom so nectar and pollen are available. I guess my number one question is: why are they so nervous on the comb?

[muskratcreekhoney]

Ok, I think I know the answer. I just checked two hives at my home yard, one is a Russell breeder queen, the other a mutt. The breeder queen hive did the nervous on comb thing but were gentle. The mutt queen, previously gentle, were nervous and were all over me. I think I had about a dozen or more crawling and headbutting my veil plus all the ones on my gloves. It was actually a little scary to think of what would of happened if I just had a jacket and not a full suit.I walked about 100 yards to my barn and still had a half dozen on me, and yes I was puffing smoke the whole time. Almost forgot, I went inside to take a shower and while standing in the bathroom I felt a little tickle under my shortsThat was too close!!!!

Anyway, even with the goldenrod starting to bloom, I think they consider themslves to be in a dearth.

[rrussell6870]

Sounds like some eager beavers to me. ;-) How does the water source look?

[SwedeBee1970]

Not once, was "Smoking the bees prior to opening" was mentioned. Assuming that was done, sounds like communications between each other and direction from the queen. Moving slowly helps them remain calm during inspections too. Try not to crush any when moving frames or boxes to the side.

[virginiawolf]

I don't know what it means but did they look like these bees I referred to as shimmering in this video I made early in the season? They had a queen. I noticed that I wrote a storm was in the distance. I wasn't sure what the shimmering was either. It looked like they were inspecting the hive box. I was told Italians were real active so I figured it was maybe that.
http://youtu.be/Dy6Hjeg61z0

[rrussell6870]

Wolf, that's called washboarding... the nervousness that Muskrat is describing is kind of a chatter on the actual comb... sometimes you can even hear it and feel the vibrations in your hand (and apparently he almost felt the "vibrations" somewhere else too ;-)...

It's common when there is a heavy forage population and the outer forage runs short... my father called it "greedy bees". Lol. It looks like they are all on a sugar high (if there were such a thing for bees)... they "shimmer" (vibrate from side to side very fast) as they seem to scurry away from the bee keeper while inspecting combs...

The reason that I asked how the water supply looked is because they tend to do this whenever they are not finding an obtainable water source as well as nectar source...

[jeff123fish]

my bees will do this if they are getting robbed by a neighbor sort of a nervous thing

[muskratcreekhoney]

You described it perfectly Russell. Muskrat creek is about 30 yards away, and we have had plenty of water this year to keep it filled.

Swedebee- Yes I smoked them before inspection, and during, and then some more, then I started smoking myself!!

I will put some patties on all the colonies as soon as it arrives, maybe that will calm them, that and hopefully they start working the goldenrod. It's funny because they have honey and nectar, didn't see much pollen.

[muskratcreekhoney]

I have not seen any robbing, not to say they aren't, but they are the strongest hive and there are some nucs that robbers could take out a little easier.

[virginiawolf]

Thank you for responding. I was kind of hoping that if it was the same behavior that I could find out as well but I appreciate you helping me and muskratcreekhoney understand the difference. I just looked up washboarding on your site and you described it really well. So the ones I was wondering about are marking their box with a pheromone so the bees know whos turf it is. I thought they were inspecting it

I read this site a lot now and it amazes me how much information there is on the subject of beekeeping and how it ties into what seems like everything. I really appreciate the time you and other members devote to the forum. It is a wonderful help. Sometimes the humor on here is much needed as well after long days

This being my second year and increasing my qty of hives I've experienced a good bit more including trapping hive beetles with beetle juice*It works well*, Robbing, buying and mixing a lot of sugar syrup, getting stung, moving hives, Building Hive Bodies, Installing queens, Picking up Queens at the post office "wink Wink" Bees going in the Hot Tub, Killing wax Moth larvae, One hive disappeared from wax moth I'm thinking not positive, Rearing a few queens learning about that a bit, restoring some older equipment, refreshing water for the bees, Etc. Lots of reading. It's really a lot of information to process but I'm glad I started the journey It's cool to think of all the interlocking history of the bees, and beekeepers from back in time into the present. Amazing! Thanks for explaining the washboarding, Hope things are going well for you and your team! Wolf