Frantic doorstep inspections?

[tjc1]

I have been seeing regular (any time of day if I stop I'll see it going on) encounters between bees on the hive doorstep. One or two bees will be frantically (very energetically) crawling all over another bee, seemingly 'sniffing' it all over. They are not fighting. The bee being 'inspected' seems to sit there patiently while all this goes on. It usually lasts a minute or two, and then suddenly, all the bees go their own way. This seems to be happening much more at one hive than at the other. Anyone have any ideas? I don't recall seeing this behavior before...

[divemaster1963]

Is your area going into a Darth or are you all still on heavy flow. They start guarding more intensly when the flow falls off.

John

[cao]

I've seen it occasionally with my hives.  It looks to me that the one bee is cleaning the other.  Maybe someone else knows for sure.

[tjc1]

Linden trees are just starting to bloom and the weather has been great so there is other stuff around, too. Still coming in with pollen. And yes. it does look almost as if they are grooming the other bee, though it is pretty agitated cleaning if so!

[BeeMaster2]

Sounds like good genetics. They groom each other. I'll bet you are not having a problem with Mites.
Jim