Tails up!

newbee07 · May 28, 2007, 05:46:03 PM

I checked the hive i put one frame of eggs, larvae, and brood with a capped queen cell in today. It has been 3 days since and the hive entrance is packed bee are along the top of the entrance faceing down with tails buzzing moving forward and backwards in a line. Never seen this. the hive had very little brood in it when i did this and no eggs or larvae at all. anyone else experienced this before?

Kirk-o · May 28, 2007, 06:16:59 PM

Well I don't get the question.If you put a queen cell in there let them be for a week or so then see what they are up to.
kirko

Jerrymac · May 28, 2007, 07:31:38 PM

The forward backward motion is washboarding.

newbee07 · May 28, 2007, 09:07:24 PM

what is washboarding?

Brian D. Bray · May 28, 2007, 10:47:27 PM

Wash boarding is when the bees line up near the hive entrance, form a conga line, and do the hula. The up and down movements of the bees look like the ripples on a washboard, hence the name.

MrILoveTheAnts · May 28, 2007, 10:52:07 PM

And why are they doing this?

Brian D. Bray · May 28, 2007, 11:06:30 PM

For the same reason the dwarfs in Sleeping Beauty sing that "Off to work I go..." song.

One theory is that the bees have their honey sacks full of nectar and are evaporating water content.

I just like to watch conga lines. Especially when they pull up the hems of their dresses and kick their legs.

Apis629 · May 29, 2007, 07:59:57 AM

I've always heard that washboarding has more to do with hygenic reasons than evaporating nectar. Most evaporation will first take place inside the hive, on the proboscuses of young, worker bees, and later in the cell, and fanning. I've often watched by bees washboard and, have noticed that generally, the hive is cleared of dirt and such afterwards.

If you look carefully, when bees are washboarding, they are actually dragging their tounges across the surface of the box. Through that observation, and several articles, I've come to the conclusion that washboarding is a practice where bees, being hygenic in nature, clear dirt and debris from their surroundings.

On a side note, one of my hives is located in a spot where, after every storm, they are splashed with some degree of dirt on the white paint. The entire front, and front sides are always a near perfect white within hours after these storms. Notice that it is the same area which they have been washboarding.

amandrea · May 29, 2007, 08:53:22 PM

You said they are above the entrance? If they were on the landing board infront of the entrance then they might be sanding the floor, a hygenic behavior, but above it? Makes no sense.