This morning at 6:30, I looked out at my two hives on my deck to see a major battle going on at both hives. The buzzing was angry; bees were being thrown to the deck; there were about 30 bees on the ground in front of each hive. Small clumps of bees would apparently struggle to the ground.
All of the bees looked like my Russians - I looked up to see if there were a swarm of someone else's bees in any nearby tree and didn't see one.
I tried to take some pictures and will post them in the middle of the day when I can go home to do so. The bee action was so fast and furious that I couldn't get good focus on most pictures.
I went out and put an entrance reducer with the wide opening in each of the entrances. I was in my night clothes and slippers, so I didn't push the reducers into their spaces, just pushed them up against the hive entrances.
When I left for work at 7:45, the action had slowed somewhat but the angry buzzing continued and there were still bees on the ground - about 10 - 15 at each hive.
What could be going on? Were they throwing out their own hive members? The bees on the ground looked like workers - not like drones. Is there anything else I should do? It's going to be 90 today in Atlanta and I can't leave the entrance reducer on all day.
Linda T in Atlanta :?