I was working on my grapes vine yesterday rewiring the supports. Normally I can work within 2 feet of the hives and be totally ignored. In the process of twisting wire I pulled out a cordless drill, the second wire twist and there were thousands of bees all over the place. I was about 30 feet from the rear of the first hive. I put the drill down and walked away to watch from the safety of the car considering I had no equipment on. For a very long moment I was beginning to wonder if I was watching the initiation of a massive swarm. They cooled down after about 10 minutes and went back inside the hive, first creating a huge beard. I've never seen that many turn out the hive. All I can think is the tone of the drill or the wire being twisted put them on alert.
I've heard of weed eaters causing problems but not a drill. I wonder what is happening inside the hive and what kind of attitude they have normally.
I also wonder if there is a new queen in there. This time of year they should be working and not defending as much.
Jim
Fcderosa, I have heard of bees getting upset by drills. In fact I removed a colony from a house trailer in Lafitte, Louisiana about 3 yrs ago that grew extremely irritable when the owners would operate power tools, especially drills.
Get this, the couple bought the trailer with the bees in it 6 yrs prior. Yes, they lived with a colony in the bathroom wall and one under the toilet for 6 yrs until the bees grew very, very aggressive! These were the meanest bees I've ever dealt with. We couldn't take off our veils until we were 2 blocks away.
The bees literally followed the truck for some distance down the street. My nephew helped me with this job, after that I lost him as a helper, my fault, our suits had a few holes in them. He got stung a bunch, one near the eye. I counted 21 stings on me that day.
...JP