I was thinking about this the other day....
When you go to bang the bees off of a frame, most are nurse bees and inside working bees along with flying bees, right?
Ok,...When the bees who live inside and havent been outside yet, can they get back inside once bumped and dropped to the ground?
your friend,
john
yes
doak
I want to say actually no. I believe the wing muscles aren't fully developed until the bee is at least out of the cell for 3 or 4 days.
Yes, a few days.
Then I was wrong, wasn't I?
doak
My first concern is how many bees will be lost( killed) when cleaning off a frame prior to looking at it. Sure, you should knock the bees off over the box but theres always a mess of them which hit the ground instead.
your friend,
john
If we are just inspecting the frames we leave the bees on the frame if there are too many in the way we just blow on the area we want to have cleared off.
the ones that hit the ground can climb back in the hive later but knocking all the bees off really disrupts their work.
If we are robbing then we're knocking them off the frames into the hive.
Jim
Do you knock most of the bees off of a frame to inspect it? Like jimmy I just blow them out of the way from the area that I want to look at, I don't think I've ever tried to get all the bees off to check them.
now harvesting is a different matter. But they all seem to get back to a hive, not necessarily their original hive.
-rick
Newly emerged bees can't fly.
Bees with deformed wings can't fly.
Bees with "K" wing can't fly.
Bees with old frayed wings can't fly.
The rest can.
I never knock bees off of a frame to inspect it. I (while wearing a veil of course) blow gently on them or use the smoker gently to get them to move.
Hey Guys, I got to thinking about the "Knocking off of the Bees" thing. I only do it when I'm fixing to get honey. After thinking it over, I kinda figured that the only bees on the honey frames would be forager bees, you know, the ones who put up nectar... Then I thought some more......That theory doesnt hold water cuz there are bees what go get honey to feed the queen and babies and these are the younger bees that havent been promoted to "Airborne".
When looking at my bees, I dont knock them off, I just try to look over, around, and behind them...They usually move at one point or another.
Ok,...I gotta go get a queen from the bee store.
your friend,
john