Hello everyone. Just joined, not sure what I'm doing, so bear with me.
I have 2 homemade top bar hives, one on its 2nd year, the other populated from a secondary swarm from my original hive this (2020) spring.
My bees seem to know what they are doing (let nature take its course kind of thing,) even if I don't. However, I am having some curious beehavior, and would like any input I can get.
Some of my bees started to crawl around on the ground and grass (mostly in the evenings) near the (original) hive, and generally act as if they don't know how to fly, or lost the ability, or, as they say about crazy people in the south, "they're tetched." I don't know. I've seen a few just nosedive into the grass below the hive and sometimes get up and fly, sometimes not.
The first few days I just noticed several individual bees just kind of moseying around alone. Now I've noticed some are gathering in small groups, and seem to be grooming each other. Am I losing my mind?
I have not looked closely for mites, but am wondering if that may be a possibility; I have not heard of bees acting like monkeys and grooming each other, but what do I know? Not much.
The hive seems generally normal from outside observation; bees coming and going, some loaded with pollen that makes their beehinds look like taillights as they enter the hive, others just coming and going doing whatever.
In late spring, both of the hives exhibited a strange, but I think probably an overall healthy beehavior, where the bees were tossing larvae off the hive landing board. From what little I have researched, that could indicate some smart bees, and they are making infested larvae walk the plank,
so to speak.
Anyhow, I hope I am not having a serious problem leading to a colony-collapse event.
I have 2 homemade top bar hives, one on its 2nd year, the other populated from a secondary swarm from my original hive this (2020) spring.
My bees seem to know what they are doing (let nature take its course kind of thing,) even if I don't. However, I am having some curious beehavior, and would like any input I can get.
Some of my bees started to crawl around on the ground and grass (mostly in the evenings) near the (original) hive, and generally act as if they don't know how to fly, or lost the ability, or, as they say about crazy people in the south, "they're tetched." I don't know. I've seen a few just nosedive into the grass below the hive and sometimes get up and fly, sometimes not.
The first few days I just noticed several individual bees just kind of moseying around alone. Now I've noticed some are gathering in small groups, and seem to be grooming each other. Am I losing my mind?
I have not looked closely for mites, but am wondering if that may be a possibility; I have not heard of bees acting like monkeys and grooming each other, but what do I know? Not much.
The hive seems generally normal from outside observation; bees coming and going, some loaded with pollen that makes their beehinds look like taillights as they enter the hive, others just coming and going doing whatever.
In late spring, both of the hives exhibited a strange, but I think probably an overall healthy beehavior, where the bees were tossing larvae off the hive landing board. From what little I have researched, that could indicate some smart bees, and they are making infested larvae walk the plank,
so to speak.
Anyhow, I hope I am not having a serious problem leading to a colony-collapse event.