Bearding, Swarming,Robbing or just cooling off ?

[Tucker1]

The afternoon, I checked my hives during a break at work. One of the hives had about 400-600 bees flying within about 2 feet of the entrance. They were for the most part all facing towards the hive, in a hovering pattern. There was a lot of traffic moving into the hive, ..... with only 1/8 as much moving outbound.  About 150 - 250 bees were on the front of the hive, just above the entrance. I was worried that there might be some robbing going on, but I didn't see any fighting on the landing board and my other hives were showing the normal amount of traffic, so there was no migration from one hive to another.

The hive in question was in full sun light on a fairly hot day.  I figured that this was just the bees "bearding" and trying to stay cool. I cracked open the top of the hive to increase the air flow, which resulted in some temporary outbound bee movement.

I check the hive last weekend, and didn't find any issues with over crowding. Lots of brood. The hive has 2 brood boxes and 3 suppers. The top super is just now seeing some foundation building.

Should I be worried ?  or should I be checking for something special?  If so, what ?    :?

Regards,
Tucker1

[Bee-Bop]

This is what is know as orentation flights.

Your local bee club will help you along with a few good books from your public library.

Bee-Bop

[RayMarler]

Sounds to me like it is most likely afternoon orientation and cleansing flights on a warmer afternoon. Same thing is happening to my stronger hives here each afternoon, and the beards get larger as the afternoon progresses to sunset. By morning, the beards are gone and normal working activity is noticed on the front entrances.

[Tucker1]

Thanks !  It's the first time I've ever witnessed this specific behavior.  Seeing such a large quality of bees just floating around in front of the hive, all pointed in the same direction seemed pretty strange.

[Hethen57]

You just caught it at the right time...

I happened to see my hives doing that a few weeks ago, and within an hour it was back to normal.  I frequently see the orientation flights in the afternoon with all the hovering, but if you catch them just right and it is a strong hive, there may be bees covering the lower front of the hive and the landing deck for a short period of time (looking almost like swarm conditions, but not a swarm).
-Mike

[Tucker1]

Thanks !  I was surprised to see so many bees floating in front of the hive at one time. I had always thought of an orientation flight as something that a bee did by herself, sometime after hatching.  I hadn't thought of it as a collective event.

Regards,
Tucker1

[qa33010]

    During the school year when, I'm outside, the orientation flights remind me it's time to pick the kids up from school (kinda like an alarm clock, except not so annoying).  They start the same time every warm day.