Flight School

As I spoke with my father on the phone yesterday I was stopped in my tracks by what I saw outside in the yard. I sat down by the patio doors and continued to watch things develop as I finished up the conversation with my dad. I hung up the phone and immediately went outside to monitor the situation. What was it I saw that concerned me? Also if such an incident was concerning me, how would my neighbours react to such a situation if they happened to step out on their patio.

By my estimation, I would say there were 100-200ish bees all flying around the front of the hive. My inexperienced thought process immediately jumped to swarming, but after thinking the situation through it had to be something different. They hadn't possibly overcrowded the hive in such a short time, 3-4 days, and they couldn't possibly be honey bound (no more room to store nectar) for the same reason as previously listed. That lead me to the only other thing I could think of, absconding.

So I sat in my lawn chair next to the hive for the next 20 minutes watching the bees do their thing. The sound was very similar to the bee yard where we had picked up the nuc from, the yard was no longer quiet like it had been for the past few days. The only saving grace I had was inorder to hear it you had to be within 5-6 meters. Suddenly it became clear as to what was going on. I began focusing on all the bees that were gathered out on the landing board. There were dozens that were just hanging out, inspecting other bees, and grooming themselves or others. Most of them would eventually take flight, however some of those who tried failed to get sufficient lift and landed in the creeping thyme below. They would then continue to groom themselves and eventually successfully take wing.

After these bees took wing they would hover back and forth in front of the hive for a few minutes and then slowly start making larger circles around the hive and yard. It was clearly apparent that these bees were taking their first orientation flights. A new generation of foragers land marking their hive so they could go out into the world. Why they all decided to do this at once I'm not sure, maybe it's like a change of guard where large groups of foragers are replaced at once. Within 20 minutes of when I noticed the build up everything had returned to normal, quiet and tranquil. Thankfully my neighbours didn't happen to show up, but once I had figured out the issue I could have spoken with them to alleviate their fears. I would also assume my presence of sitting in a lawn chair only 2 meters from the hive would generate some relief. "They aren't stinging him, why would they come sting me."

The most important lesson about this situation though was the power of observation. I would encourage any new beekeeper to simply sit down and watch their hives. A lot of information can be obtained in this manner, besides it being thoroughly fascinating.