Walked out into the back yard about 10 AM Sunday, just before the cold front and associated storms moved thru here in Western IL.
The entrance to EVERY hive was literally boiling with bees, in spite of the entrance reducers.
I've never seen anything like it.......it was almost 'swarming' density of flying bees.
Could they have sensed the coming weather / baro pressure / temperature change ?
You bet they do, and if you had opened a hive, you would think they were Africanized. Just before a storm, they are the meanest you will ever see.
I learned the hard way when first starting out. Opened a hive to fill a feeder just before an approaching storm. Needless to say they my legs couldn't get me away fast enough.
Received about two dozen stingers for that stupid move. :laugh:
I made the mistake of just raising the top cover up when it was doing a lot of thundering. I got five total I think. I started letting the top cover down easy, then one got me in the armpit, bam! down goes the cover and off I go. Then it dawned on me, thunder=lightening, lightening=static electricity, which equals angry bees. My bees are pretty docile except at certain times.
This is well known and written in books, about behavior before storms. But a few times i opened a hive with such conditions ( raining in the horizon and lightnings ) bees where very calm, maybe more than with regular conditions. I can not explain the reason.