[LarryBud]

Check the hives this morning and they're all jumping out again. I did a deep pre-winter inspection yesterday, the hive has three supers on top of two deeps, strong population with room to go on the third super. They've been doing this in the morning for the past few weeks. Yesterday's mite count was very low, 1 on alcohol wash. Plenty of forager coming and going, strong fall flow. What are they doing other than making me crazy (ier)

 

[Boondocks]

What was the temperature?
Did you spill any sugar syrup in that area? If you are using in-hive feeders, perhaps some is leaking down to the ground. Or maybe some honey is leaking or leaked out when you pulled out some frames?
It could be a farewell party for the drones.

 

[LarryBud]

What was the temperature?
Did you spill any sugar syrup in that area? If you are using in-hive feeders, perhaps some is leaking down to the ground. Or maybe some honey is leaking or leaked out when you pulled out some frames?
It could be a farewell party for the drones.

LOL-Farewell Party for the drones!!! Actually, I've been seeing some nice big health drones in this hive but not the other one. They sometimes have a problem getting in but they're around.

Air temp was 55 f when I took the photo's. They've been doing this for over two weeks in the morning, well before I did the last inspection, the hive has two capped mediums loaded with honey, a third they've started building comb on and I haven't fed since the end of April-never had a dearth here and there's 15 acres of blooming Goldenrod, Joe Pye Weed, Aster 300 yards away and tons of small omental garden even closer. They just come out around 7 am and start jumping off the landing board, crawl/fly back up. An hour later, just (a lot) of foragers coming and going for the rest of the day. The hive 3 feet away is just normal flow activity.

 

[Boondocks]

Maybe they are after the water in a wet spot on the ground. That brick could have made a depression and moisture collects there. That's my last guess.

 

[LarryBud]

That's a pretty good guess and leads me to another reason-perhaps they are young workers about to become foragers. With all of the pollen coming in they are going down to gather up the pollen balls that fell from crashing foragers. I have some leftover 18 x 24 dark gray slate roof tiles from renovations-I think I'll lay some below the landing board and see if there's any pollen on them tomorrow. When I cleaned off the SBB tray yesterday it was loaded with pollen balls.