Orientation flight excitement

reinbeau · July 05, 2010, 01:02:04 PM

I walked out to the chickens last Friday to gather eggs and Hive #1 was going nuts - at first I thought they were getting ready to swarm, but then I realized they were just orienting - lots of new bees ready to go out into the world!

Orientation Flight Excitement

NasalSponge · July 05, 2010, 01:27:03 PM

Nice! I love it when they do that!v

annette · July 05, 2010, 06:38:23 PM

I remember the first time I saw the bees doing orientation flights. I just freaked out not knowing what the heck was going on.

Now I understand the confusion with new beekeepers when they see something like that. Even I still wonder what they are doing sometimes when they have so many bees doing that.

reinbeau · July 05, 2010, 06:41:24 PM

Exactly, Annette. I know what orientation flights are, but this one was sooooo big, it took me by surprise. That's our strongest package out there, I think it'll produce some nice honey for us this season!

annette · July 05, 2010, 06:44:52 PM

Do you have a flow started yet??

reinbeau · July 05, 2010, 07:32:26 PM

Oh, yea, it was three weeks early this year, which is probably why they're off to such a strong start - that and all that nice drawn comb we've accumulated, they just have to fill them up and cap them! :-D

Paynesgrey · July 06, 2010, 09:10:01 AM

I love to stop and watch them when they do that! It's just so...so... 8-)

We have one hive that when they orient, after a while when they land they will follow each other in long beelines (congo anyone?) all the way up both deeps, and down, up and down, in several loops, from one side to the other before they return inside the hive. I'm guessing they are following a scent trail? Some of the other hives do that with little loops around the entrance, but Alpha hive makes quite a production of it. If I had video, I'd try to put it up.

Irwin · July 06, 2010, 09:16:34 AM

Mine do it around 3pm Every sunny day.

AllenF · July 06, 2010, 10:33:36 AM

I like it when they do that on the first warm day in the early spring.

beekeeper1756 · July 06, 2010, 11:10:43 AM

I remember the very first time that I saw this happening in front of one of my hives. I was working one of my hinves and then I suddenly became aware of this noise, this buzzing that was getting louder and louder and now it's really, really loud. I turn and the hive next to me had come out in numbers by the hundreds and hundreds.

My heart stopped. I saw bees flying closely to the front of the hive and I paniced for several seconds, thinking I had a robbing happening right in front of my eyes. I watched intently and realized they weren't fighting, they were orienting on the hive. Once I got my heart going again, I just watched in amazement and how incredible they are. This went on for about 30-40 minutes and then they all just settled back into the hive. When it was all over, I even began to doubt what I had seen.

JP · July 06, 2010, 11:28:52 AM

There's no mistaking a swarm, they empty out en masse. Both swarming and orientation flights are beautiful to watch.

That's a great video Ann, just beautiful footage!

On a nice, cold winter day, you can watch that video and it'll make you smile.

...JP

bulldog · July 06, 2010, 01:55:45 PM

how often do bees do their orientation flight ? if i move their hive at night will they do another orientation in the morning, or will they just fly out of the hive and not be able to find their home again ?

jgaito · July 06, 2010, 06:27:00 PM

i got to see one of mine do that. looked like a mini tornado of bees and as they got up about fifteen feet they would go off in different directions. can you imagine the quantity and detail of the information they are processing ? amazing.

reinbeau · July 07, 2010, 07:02:37 AM

Quote from: bulldog on July 06, 2010, 01:55:45 PM
how often do bees do their orientation flight ? if i move their hive at night will they do another orientation in the morning, or will they just fly out of the hive and not be able to find their home again ?

You need to be careful moving them. Michael Bush has good info about moving bees on his website