hello all--I am new to beekeeping this year. I am hoping that some of you can shed some light on some stuff I am seeing! I have been spending a lot of time watching my hive and the bees out front, trying to learn about what they are doing. There is one repeating event that has got me completely stumped.
during the day while the bees are busy working there are somewhat bigger bees (1.5 times the size) that fly up and into the hive. These bees are not bumble bees that I know of. They are slightly larger and fly up to the hive in a more erratic flight pattern and high-pitched buzz. I thought maybe they were other bees robbing the hive but the bees don't seem to take any notice of them when they finally land on the landing board and walk in, and then later walk out. I do see a few dead bees out front of the hive that appear to be the slightly larger bees and today just to make things more confusing I saw one that was alive being dragged out by three other bees from the hive. What am I seeing? The abdomens are larger and less stripped then the bees from the hive. They arrive one at a time but are fairly common, maybe every few minutes.
during the day while the bees are busy working there are somewhat bigger bees (1.5 times the size) that fly up and into the hive. These bees are not bumble bees that I know of. They are slightly larger and fly up to the hive in a more erratic flight pattern and high-pitched buzz. I thought maybe they were other bees robbing the hive but the bees don't seem to take any notice of them when they finally land on the landing board and walk in, and then later walk out. I do see a few dead bees out front of the hive that appear to be the slightly larger bees and today just to make things more confusing I saw one that was alive being dragged out by three other bees from the hive. What am I seeing? The abdomens are larger and less stripped then the bees from the hive. They arrive one at a time but are fairly common, maybe every few minutes.
