OK. I have been watching my hive entrance--too much!
Do your bees come out of their entrance on to the porch and wipe their heads, eyes, etc with their front legs and fly off??? I am feeding with a top feeder so I guess my real question is, would bees robbing this hive come out and wipe their faces after filling up on syrup and fly off to their hive?? My other hive is so active that I have not stop to look for the behavior there. They're been fed too.
If you had robbers, you'd see bees fighting at the entrance, and you wouldn't be looking for activity...it's be going crazy. Bees often clean themselves, so it's no big deal to see them wiping anything off before heading out.
I agree that I dont think you have a robbing problem. I read some where that bees wipe their antennas off every time they leave the hive. After reading that I watched and I would say 90% of them do, probably the rest do it inside where you cant see them. I cant find the article where I read that maybe someone else remembers it.
Mine do the same thing, they are always grooming themselves & even each other! When I had to cut weird comb that was capped some of the bees got all gooey. I spooned em out & put em at the enterance & their sisters came out & cleaned em right up! :) Jody
That makes me feel better. The other hive is so active, they just fly in and out quickly. Maybe I have really hygenic bees!!!
There is an excellent video of this on Youtube. I don't think I am allowed to post links yet but if you go to youtube and search for "beehive flight operations" you will find it. It shows them doing exactly what you are describing.
Quote from: NasalSponge on September 08, 2008, 04:26:32 PM
There is an excellent video of this on Youtube. I don't think I am allowed to post links yet but if you go to youtube and search for "beehive flight operations" you will find it. It shows them doing exactly what you are describing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMuloKD_2y4
...JP
Thanks for the link and info.