Made a new discovery today.

[juzzerbee]

I was relaxing at my hives tonight and noticed a lot of bees crawling on the bottom board on 1 of the hives(about 20-35 bees). I assumed that they must be just cooling off. My other hive only had a few on the bottom board. So....I started to wonder if the hive might be getting robbed. I took my empty soda bottle and tapped the open spout of it on the bottom board and they seemed to go nuts! About 5 flew at me and about another 5 immediately jumped on to the spout of the bottle. Yeah, it was mean to tease them but it was fun to watch them get after me and the bottle. I did it a second time and the same thing happened. I did the same thing to my other hive and these bees did not seem to care at all. So... my question is, are the bees that "attacked" the bottle guard bees that are really irritated because they might be under attack? Or do some bees just really dislike the smell of Diet Sun Drop? Thanks, juzzerbee.

[Vance G]

You triggered a defense.

[Solomon Parker]

Had you just opened the bottle? They could have been triggered by the carbon dioxide therein.

[juzzerbee]

The bottle was empty. It was probably just them getting mad at that guy who is always bothering them!!!! I like the idea that they are protective of their,"stuff." juzzerbee

[tommyt]

I believe in keeping entrance's reduced
you may want to consider it at least for a while

T