[BoTBees]

why are the bees from my hive on the outside? i know that they will be there if they're hot or crowded or fanning faremons , but they're going in a side to side up and down motion. are they cleaning the hive? they look like they're young. also there's about 100 to 200 bees on the front.

 

[Soupy944]

dancing????

 

[BigT]

Are they bearding? Bearding is when they hang around on the outside of the hive to cool off because it is too hot inside the hive. You can try giving them a little more ventilation by proping the back of the outter cover up a little by placing a small stick or pop sickle stick or something simular between the outter and inner cover.
Big T

 

[BigDru]

Its a bee dance.

 

[jhs494]

If you do a search for washboarding, you may find a video of it and you can see if this is what your hive is doing. This is a couple videos that I found that show it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yymQSEfBPgs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-poz-8oisk


Good luck and I hope this helps!

Joe

 

[AllFloridaBee]

Very nice videos, jhs.

I've always called it 'sweeping the front porch'.