Unusual traffic for a few minutes - reasons ?

[ThomasGR]

Hello,
I notice often that a hive can have to much traffic for a few minutes. After that period, traffic is as every day.
Are they foragers comes due to storm ?
Are they new foragers that comes out altogether ?
Are they existing foragers that found a new flow ?

* Did you noticed foragers get out of the hive but not as usual . They walk - run upwards the face of the hive and then fly. Do you know when this happens ? Maybe a new strong flow ?

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[iddee]

Orientation flights.  New bees flying for the first time, learning the neighborhood.

[BAH]

What Iddee said. My bees in hive 2 do this everyday at about 1-3. What time is yours doing this? Just asking because my hive 1 is not doing this at the same time.

[ThomasGR]

Thanks, they are orientation flights compared with other videos. Thank you.
It happened about 3+ with sunshine.

* It is not what you can see on the video i posted. It is completely different. I have not found a reason yet, when bees goes that way upwards. The video above is early morning, sun is not yet shining. I suppose it is related with a strong flow but this is just a thought.

[knuteream]

It's fun watching the crazy traffic during the orientation flights.  For me, this also seems to be the same time the drones like to fly (2-3PM), and they lumber through the air like big St. Bernards, plowing through worker bees as they careen onto the landing board.  Definitely entertaining!

[JackM]

If you note, the leaving bees are on one side and returning are on the other.....just rush hour traffic, moves well in your neighborhood.

[stella]

This happened to me yesterday for the first time. Went out to inspect at about 1:30 pm. Hive #2 was very active at the entrance. After I removed the lid and started to inspect they boiled out from the top and bottom, flying in circles, landing and crawling on me and everything else. This was unusual (but very cool) for me so I decided to close them up and move to hive #1, which had non of this behavior.

I returned 30-60 minutes later to inspect hive #2 and all was calm.

Another unusual behavior I noticed was that the bees were pooping on me and my camera when they landed. I havent seen that, to that extent, in my "normal" inspections. I guess that would also support that these were orientation flights of new bees.

[Jackam]

... the bees were pooping on me ...  I guess that would also support that these were orientation flights of new bees.

Either that or the bees are expressing their opinions of you! :)

[beek1951]

I agree with the consensus; Oreintation Flights. What has always
struck me as unusual about this phenomenon is that the new foragers
so not come out for their first flights in the morning, but in my case from
about 2 to 4 pm. Easy to confuse as robbing behavior except you don't
see bees turning butt-first flips getting out of the hive. More hovering at
the entrance.

[Carol]

If it isn't raining, my hive does it's orientation flights around 1530 each afternoon. Sometimes it's only 15 minutes but one day it was more than 1/2 hour and the number of bees was huge. Had me concerned until I read on here that the Queen lays alot some days and less on others..so must have been a huge hatch out at one point. It was also very hot that day. If I stand to the side and watch...I can see the foragers shoot out of the hive in a bee line like they were shot out of a gun...the orientation bees climb up the front and then take off. Some hovering around the front of the hive and others spririaling upwardards....lots of trees and tall plants around the hive. I look forward to these flights every afternoon.

[Michael Bush]

http://bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#orientation

The flow of traffic changes during the course of a typical sunny day, not to mention changes because of clouds, wind, barometric pressure changes, rain etc.

Every sunny afternoon during the active season you get orientation flights.  You also have the mass exodus of drones to the DCA and then later the return of the drones.  This often causes a traffic jam.