causes for short bursts of air activity?

[windfall]

I am wondering what might cause a short intense burst of air born bees.
Around noon today I walked out on the back porch (we have a 8 frame nuc we installed just beyond last week) and the air was full of bees, unlike anything I have observed over the last week by a factor of ten. They didn't seem aggressive or upset and it was over and back to "normal" within a half hour.

What might cause this other than a physical disturbance to the hive?
What would a swarm issuing from a small hive look like?....I think I saw a couple queen cell/cups as I moved over the frames; but this was my first time in a hive and I didn't linger to really inspect and photo.

[hardwood]

Sounds like orientation flights to me...this happens when house bees graduate to field bees.

Scott

[jmblakeney]

Sounds like orientation flights to me.

That's what I thought about mine when it done that last week but, do all the newly graduated field bees do it all at once during a 15-30 min period?  I have two hives side by side.  One hive did it for about 20 min then 5 min later the other hive did the same thing.  Im not for sure what's happening with them but its fascinating to watch.

James

[schawee]

i agree,sounds like orientation flights.       ...schawee

[G3farms]

sounds like orientation flights to me also. Watch when they come out of the hive, they will turn around and look at the hive and kind of fly around it, just checking things out.

 

[windfall]

Interesting. I too had assumed orienting flights were taking place all the time as bees moved "up" the ladder. is it more of a class graduation kind of thing?
the sphere of activity was pretty large 40-50' and mostly above 10 feet so that would fit.
thanks

[AllenF]

You know how the girls just all have to go to the potty in big groups.

[G3farms]

You know how the girls just all have to go to the potty in big groups.

that is funny!!

[BjornBee]

If the bees had been stuck in the hive due to rain or cold weather, you can see this as the sun breaks out and many bees are orienting for the first time.

But you will also see bees do this as the queen leaves to mate. It's not like they all sit around and she just walks out. They sometimes "escort" her out of the hive in much fanfare. They also sometimes have increased activity when she comes back with fanning and many bees out to greet (and protect) her.

There is also very specific times that many drones issue from the hive. You can see many hives drones leaving, and many times (around 3-3:30 pm) drones all come back in great numbers. And they can cause the sound to be very loud.

Other times, and I forget the fancy name given too it (I think Jim Fischer told it to me once before), bees just all get worked up and have micro-bursts of activities for no apparent reason. You can see this most days as one hive gets in a frenzy, then 10 minutes later another hives goes nuts for awhile, and so on.

[Brian D. Bray]

During orientation flights the bees will begin by just walking over the front of the hive, they might even walk all the way around it.  A few days later they begin to make flights, a few inches, a few more inches, a foot, another foot, until they are 50 feet or more from the entrance before returning to the hive. 
In a bee yard with a dozen hives, between 2-4 pm on a warm summers afternoon, the sun can appear to be blocked by the cloud of bees.  Between the returning foragers and the orientation flights it can appear as if a swarm were taking flight from each hive.

In a hive, as the population increases, the graduating class gets bigger and bigger until the queen reaches here maximum ability to produce brood, then the orientation flights will remain relatively constant.  But a hive with 2 full brood boxes and 3-4 supers can put a lot of bees into the air at one time.

[bee-nuts]

I was at a yard the other day and there was normal activity.  I left and came back in a half hour to a huge cloud of bees in front of one of the hive.  My first thought was dang it they are swarming.  A closer look and there were so many bees coming and going it looked like a carpet of bees getting sucked into the three inch reduced entrance while they were crawling in.  I had just went through the colony a few days before and did not see any q-cells so I was dumb founded to see all those bees.

[forrestcav]

had the same thing the other day. went down for my daily walk around and had 20-30 bees hovering around the entrance. I just took it for granted it was orientation flights. Still had normal foragers coming and going.

[bee-nuts]

I have been in that same yard now for three days working on a new fence because cattle will soon be in the mix.  I have never been in the same yard noon to three so many days in a row.  It seems between 1:30 - 2:30 is bees gone mad hour.  Im guessing once the hive warms up enough inside its time to work full boar.  We have had such a cool spring its just been sad.  It been low forties to mid fifties at night and highs in the mid 60s to low 70s so i think at peak sun they are making the best of it.  Finally supposed to see 80+ Monday.

Im not talking 30 or 30 bees, im talking thousands.

[forrestcav]

make hay while the sun shines. LOL