Unbelievable situation today.
Got a call this afternoon that hundreds and hundreds of bees were flying in and around the barn on the property where I keep my bees.
I got into the car and drove up to the property to see what is up. Well I was told that many of the bees left the barn already, but I did see many still there. I was watching them and it seemed like they were looking for something. My first thought was it might have been a swarm looking for a place to live. So I drove up the hill to check on my hives to see if there was any evidence of my hives swarming out.
When I got there I was stunned!! All my hives were being robbed out in a frenzy I have never experienced before. There were bees covering my hives from all sides. Clusters of bees just hanging all over the hives.
I placed robbing screens on the bottom landing boards, reduced the top entrances to the size of one bee and covered them in wet sheets.
I watched and saw the situation starting to calm down.
Now I know why this happened. I had removed some empty frames and some frames of honey from a hive that had to be brought down in size. Usually I always take the frames of honey with me and freeze them, but I forgot about them and left them up at the hives.
Well I am sure it was those very frames that started the frenzy and it just expanded out to my hives.
I removed the honey frames this afternoon. I am sure things will start to calm down but I have lots of questions
1. What were those bees doing in the barn??? Where did they come from??? They were there the same time the robbing was going on, were they robber bees just looking for something?
2. Their were also lots of bees trying to get into the house at the screened kitchen window. Where they doing the same thing as the bees in the barn?? Just smelling stuff and seeing what they can rob???
I know my hives did not swarm today.
Anyway anyone ever have this experience?? It got me very nervous because I keep these bees on someone else's property and I would feel terrible if they got into any the barns or outhouses.
I would really like to know why so many bees were flying around inside this barn?? They were basically gone within an hour.
Appreciate the help
Annette