What's going on? Not robbing

[Donovan J]

I did a hive Inspection at 10 local time and I came down a few minutes ago to put in a top bar frame for them to draw out and for the queen to lay into so I can split the hive and I saw this. There's about 100 bees flying around the entrance and around the bee yard. What's going on?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFxKCqrNhTI

[BeeMaster2]

Xerox,
Hard to tell for sure, camera is moving around a lot and you did not zoom in on the entrance. 5:30 PM is the normal time for orientation. Look at the bees taking off. Are they looking at the entrance, that?s orientation. The bees that are climbing up the box to take off are usually an indication of robbing but there are not a lot of them.
Look close at the bees at the entrance. Are they fighting and rolling off of the entrance board? Are the bees that are taking off flying directly away, they could bee robbers. Are the bees landing carrying pollen? They are returning bees.
Jim Altmiller

[iddee]

My bet goes for orientation flight. As Jim said, not clear enough to be sure.

[CoolBees]

I agree. Hard to tell - but it looks like orientation flights. The entrance looks a might tight. Might be time to open it some. I always open up the entrance when I see significant conjestion.

[Donovan J]

My bet goes for orientation flight. As Jim said, not clear enough to be sure.

Yeah i think so too. I came up a bit later and saw bees doing circles around the place so it was orientation flights. I was surprised at the amount of bees at the entrance!

[Nock]

I saw some doing the same the other day. It was late in afternoon. They would do small circles out in front of hive and return. I figured that?s what I was seeing.

[Bob Wilson]

Xerox. I see mine do that a lot too. I had another newbee friend who thought his hive was getting robbed, but we both figured it out to be the learning/orientation flight of older bees entering their foraging stage. I love to watch them do it. Usually in the afternoons.

[Donovan J]

Xerox. I see mine do that a lot too. I had another newbee friend who thought his hive was getting robbed, but we both figured it out to be the learning/orientation flight of older bees entering their foraging stage. I love to watch them do it. Usually in the afternoons.

Yeah it is pretty chaotic and loud. 

[Hops Brewster]

Chaotic and loud sometimes seems to be what bees do best.  But when you spend some time observing you will see just how well organized that chaos is.   Certainly better organized than myself.

[Ben Framed]

My bet goes for orientation flight. As Jim said, not clear enough to be sure.

I think iddee is right.
Phillip