What Do Bees Do At Night?

PhilK · November 24, 2015, 08:54:17 AM

We have two hives in our front yard, and I have noticed after dark there a handful of bees on the landing board. On both hives, the bees are clustered towards the left corner of the landing board and seem to just be wandering around when I look at them with a torch. Nights here in Queensland at the moment are around 23-28C.. are the hives just too full for them all to fit, as the foraging bees are back?

I was also coming home from a late night out the other night at around 4am while it was still dark, and the bees were in the same place doing the same thing... Got me wondering what they get up to at night inside the hive too.

Cheers

MangoBee · November 24, 2015, 08:59:04 AM

I know they take sugar syrup or honey/water mix at night!

rwlaw · November 24, 2015, 10:28:34 AM

From what I understand bees don't sleep, they take cat naps. In my thinking the foragers are off out of the way getting some down time for the next day, there's less guard activity etc, the brood nest is probably a 24/7 thing tho.

Maggiesdad · November 24, 2015, 10:41:57 AM

I've noticed mine still flying on moonlit nights, plus actively repelling wax moths at night, moonlit or not.This was late in the season.

sc-bee · November 24, 2015, 10:43:26 AM

Watch Nashville, Blindside and Survivor. Occasionally Criminal Minds

BeeMaster2 · November 24, 2015, 01:00:25 PM

Like RW says, bees work 24/7. They take naps through out the day.Your nurse bees do not see much daylight. Their job never ends. the bees out front are probably guard bees on duty.
Jim

Wombat2 · November 24, 2015, 05:52:01 PM

I've had bees working the Lilly Pilly in the front of the house well past sunset and virtually dark ( only afterglow on the horizon) so they must also fly after dark - or camp out.

flyboy · November 24, 2015, 05:54:31 PM

Very interesting thread, thanks everyone. Who da thunk?

PhilK · November 24, 2015, 10:10:31 PM

Thanks for the replies! I figured bees would be like ants and other insects that just 'rest' instead of truly sleeping, and it makes sense that the inner workings of the hive (honey maturation, brood rearing etc) takes place round the clock.

The front of our hives have a landing board and a long thin metal sheet that can be used to block the entrance off. It is attached at the left hand side, and resting up on a nail on the right hand side to allow the entrance to be mostly free. Any idea why the bees from both hives seem to cluster around the left hand side more at night?

On a slightly off track note, I've noticed the bees out the front of the hive rubbing their front legs over the surfaces in a repetitve motion. Are they cleaning the surface of the hive?

BeeMaster2 · November 24, 2015, 10:11:26 PM

Bees need sun light to navigate. If they do not make it back to the hive before sundown, they find a place to land and then return in the morning. If you close your hive up after dark during the summer, come sun up you will start seeing the bees return and bunch up outside of the hive.
Jim

PhilK · November 24, 2015, 11:16:02 PM

I do not close my hive up, it is always open. The entrance excluder is always attached but is always 'up'. The bees I'm talking about I've seen just after dark, but also very early in the morning and the middle of the night. They are on the landing board with access to the hive, they just happen to all hang around the left hand side and wander around apparently aimlessly. I guess they could be guard bees but thought they would be more spread out if this was the case.

Interesting, whatever the case may be!

Quote from: sawdstmakr on November 24, 2015, 10:11:26 PM
Bees need sun light to navigate. If they do not make it back to the hive before sundown, they find a place to land and then return in the morning. If you close your hive up after dark during the summer, come sun up you will start seeing the bees return and bunch up outside of the hive.
Jim

Wombat2 · November 25, 2015, 12:24:12 AM

Quote from: PhilK on November 24, 2015, 11:16:02 PM
I do not close my hive up, it is always open. The entrance excluder is always attached but is always 'up'. The bees I'm talking about I've seen just after dark, but also very early in the morning and the middle of the night. They are on the landing board with access to the hive, they just happen to all hang around the left hand side and wander around apparently aimlessly. I guess they could be guard bees but thought they would be more spread out if this was the case.

Interesting, whatever the case may be!

If you look inside the entrance you will see a similar bunch on the inside right - checking those going out

tjc1 · November 25, 2015, 12:41:31 AM

I'm going to guess that the left-hand side of this hive is the more southerly or westerly facing side. The bees tend to shift the cluster towards the side that gets the most sun, so their activity tends to focus on that side as well.

PhilK · November 25, 2015, 02:02:37 AM

Interesting, Wombat - I'll have to have a look.

Hives face due east so the front side gets the full morning sun

flyboy · November 25, 2015, 02:05:20 AM

Quote from: PhilK on November 25, 2015, 02:02:37 AM
Interesting, Wombat - I'll have to have a look.

Hives face due east so the front side gets the full morning sun

Hey so you guys I assume would get midday sun from the north?

Wombat2 · November 25, 2015, 06:23:57 AM

Quote from: flyboy on November 25, 2015, 02:05:20 AM
Quote from: PhilK on November 25, 2015, 02:02:37 AM
Interesting, Wombat - I'll have to have a look.

Hives face due east so the front side gets the full morning sun
Hey so you guys I assume would get midday sun from the north?

Yep!

Wombat2 · November 25, 2015, 06:27:42 AM

Quote from: sawdstmakr on November 24, 2015, 10:11:26 PM
Bees need sun light to navigate. If they do not make it back to the hive before sundown, they find a place to land and then return in the morning. If you close your hive up after dark during the summer, come sun up you will start seeing the bees return and bunch up outside of the hive.
Jim

Actually Jim they navigate by UV light - they have two facets in the top of each eye dedicated to UV and can see the patterns in the sky like a road map. Until the sun drops more than 12* below the horizon there is still a lot of UV light in the sky then there is a lot of green light from excitation of oxygen atoms (a lot of excitation gives auroras) green is a colour the bees can see very well and apparently can differentiate about 23 different shades of it. So I wouldn't be surprised if bees didn't continue to fly until quite late.

Michael Bush · November 25, 2015, 08:07:22 AM

They do all the things at night that they do in the day except forage... Even in the day some of them sleep, but most of them most of the time are busy doing something. The ones hanging on the hive may be doing something or may be just resting.

GSF · November 25, 2015, 08:15:10 AM

Bees hanging around on the outside.., usually a sign of a good population

Ed Gallop · November 28, 2015, 11:34:34 AM

Hence... Busy as a Bee. Guard bees do protect the hives at night. I've had them attack when using a flashlight (torch). But if I close up a hive, the darker the night the better, for transport, very few to no bees return to the hive the next morning.