Hi Paul,
No I had a good look for wing damage and they looked fine. Although the
drunk thing rings quite true. There were no where near as many bees around
as you have in your photo, I'm starting to wonder if I came along as the
drones were almost back, after the event. Or perhaps something had happened
and I came along after it was all over! As I say they look very calm
today. I have reduced their entrance by 1/3 and will keep an eye on them.
With regard to spraying I know a couple of my fellow allotmenters are very
over keen with weedkiller much to my and others on my row distress but I
haven't noticed anyone having a dead yellow allotment for a while! Thanks
for the book advice I shall take a look.
Best
Karen
On Wed, 10 Jun 2020 at 11:36, Oxnatbees <oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Karen
If you look closely, there are always some bees crawling round under /
near a hive - any who feel unwell instinctively exit the hive.
But this sounds like something a bit more than that. So:
Did the bees crawling around have deformed wings? Looking like they have
been nibbled? They can't fly if they do. This is a virus, DWV, mainly
spread by varroa.
It could also be poisoning - someone on the allotment could have sprayed a
flowering plant (farmers avoid spraying crops *in flower* as they know
these are attractive to pollinators). You could ask people if they have
been using sprays.
The wasps are probably an unrelated thing. As Lynne says, reducing the
entrance by 30-50% will help the bees guard it against wasps.
Drone time - typically in the early afternoon, ALL the drones go off at
the same time. It looks a bit like a small swarm but they don't cluster.
This is a mating thing, the virgin queens and drones all fly when the air
is warmest and calmest every day it is practical to. By assembling in
"drone congregation areas" at the same time they have the best chance of
finding a mate. Queens are poor flyers and drones can only fly for 30-40
minutes between refuelling so the more synchronised they are, the better
their chances of hooking up.
See attached photo I took yesterday afternoon. Lots of drones milling
around in the way of the foragers. Heap of them under the hive wondering
what's going on. Drones always seem drunk! Does this look familiar? I
realise you said specifically that it was *workers* acting oddly so this
is not quite relevant, but it could be the drone flight was occurring at
the same time as another phenomenon, confusing the issue.
A useful reference for understanding entrance behaviour is a book called *At
The Hive Entrance* by H. Storch. Best gotten from Northern Bee Books,
because profits go to charity whereas Amazon sells badly printed ripoffs.
Avoid the free pdfs circulating because, again, they are ripping off a
charity. The book was originally in German so be careful to get the English
version if that is your bestest language.
And of course another wonderful, but pricey book is *The Buzz About Bees*
by Tautz. Both these books are background "why things happen" ones, not
"how to do stuff" manuals.
Paul
On Wed, 10 Jun 2020 at 10:56, Oxnatbees <oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Karen
I wonder what time of day this was? If it was "drone time", say 2-3pm,
then their presence could be confusing matters a bit.
Some foragers will die every day, but they don't normally all do it in
one place. So it is possible there was a wasp fight.
Wasps at this time of year are not after honey, but after protein to feed
their new growing brood. So they are looking to take bees and bee larvae
back to their own nest.
Try temporarily reducing the size of the entrance to assist them in
defence. You can do this just by placing a small block of wood to lay on
the landing board across half the entrance.
Lynne
On Wed, 10 Jun 2020, 10:47 Karen Giles, <karen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi all,
I was a bit worried yesterday as my hive was acting a bit strange! They
were very active but not with the same sense of purpose as normal I’d say
stressed chaotic summed it up, also there seemed to be drones coming and
going and generally milling about.
There was a pile of about 20 workers on the floor below the entrance but
they didn’t seem to be balling anything and I noticed lots of workers
wondering around on the floor all over my allotment. I also noticed a few
wasps dismembering and removing dead or dying bees.
Happily today they seem normal again, not overly busy but a few in and
out and lots of pollen.
I have ordered a dummy wasp nest in case it is a wasp problem but from
what I have read it’s a bit early for them to be steeling honey.
Any other ideas and insights would be gratefully received.
Best
Karen
Karen Giles
Senior Design Engineer
Black Dog Design Ltd
t: 07790 908144
e:karen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
