Why don’t bees fly out of the hives?

Almost every spring, novice beekeepers are overwhelmed with more experienced questions: why do not bees fly out of the hive, what are the reasons for this phenomenon, how dangerous is it and what should be done while doing this?

It is unambiguously very difficult to answer such a question, since it is necessary to know many additional factors: weather conditions, the strength of the family, the availability of feed and sowing, the age of the uterus, the state of nibbling, the presence of concomitant diseases, etc.

The content of the article

  • 1 Flight problem diagnostics
    • 1.1 Inspection of a problematic bee colony
  • 2 Reasons for the absence of summer in spring – what to do?
  • 3 Reasons for the absence of summer in summer – what to do?

Flight problem diagnostics

It’s not a secret for anyone that it is during the summer that an experienced beekeeper visually monitors the state of the bee colony without entering the hive.

This is especially true in the spring, when often the still cool weather does not allow frequent examination of families, because this entails a violation of the temperature regime and microclimate in the hive, which, in turn, slows down the development of the family and can even cause the death of the brood.

It is no coincidence that all beekeepers try not to miss the cleaning flight of bees in their apiaries.

If the bees fly out of the hive together and cheerfully, with a characteristic hum, most likely everything is in order with the family.

If, at that moment, when the whole apiary is buzzing and the snow or the ground is literally covered with characteristic bee excrement, and in some hive there is no summer, such a family needs an urgent examination.

Inspection of a problematic bee colony

Since the bees prefer to fly around in sunny and calm warm weather, it is possible to make a cursory examination of a problematic bee colony without any danger to the winged wards. It is with a cursory examination that it is necessary to try and establish the presence of the factors described above.

Work algorithm:

1First of all, you need to make sure that the family is generally alive, and did not die in the winter from lack of food, heat, air, or for some other reason.

2If the bees are alive, it is necessary, without allowing a single extra second of the bees being in the open air, to determine:

  • the strength of the family (how many frames are covered by the bees);
  • the presence of seeding and printed brood (so as not to waste time on a visual search for the queen);
  • check the amount of honey and bee bread;
  • estimate the amount of death.

Why don't bees fly out of the hives?

Particular attention should be paid to inspecting the walls of the hive, frame bars, drying, entrances and landing boards for traces of bee diarrhea!

3It is possible that the family is susceptible to nosematosis or just restlessly hibernated due to weather conditions and the bees have already emptied their intestines right in the hive. This means that they do not need a cleansing flight. In this case, the hive must be cleaned and disinfected as soon as possible, and the bees must be treated for diarrhea.

🌻:

About disinfection inside the hive in different ways

How to cure bees in spring from nosematosis

Reasons for the absence of summer in spring – what to do?

In the vast majority of cases, bees do not leave the hive, the main reason is the weakness of the family..

A small number of individuals in a bee colony forces them to be inseparably on the frames with brood, maintaining the necessary temperature and microclimate of the nest with the heat of their bodies.

In this case, it is necessary to reduce the nest to the number of slatted frames and carefully insulate it. After a couple of weeks, you will need to re-examine the problem family.

If:

  • the brood has not increased;
  • adult insects never started to fly for food or water;
  • there are visually fewer living individuals, and there is more death –

the family is a danger to the rest of the apiary.

The queen obviously does not have time to replenish the number of outgoing overwintered bees. After a while, the family will weaken so critically that bees from strong families will want to use other people’s honey reserves. An attack will begin, a weak bee family will be killed, honey will be stolen by other families, while they will enter an excited state and start looking for the next victims.

Attacks on other hives will begin and it will be very difficult to calm the apiary, especially given the possible interruptions in the maintenance bribe during this time period.

Of course, novice beekeepers, who have wintered 1-3-5 families, will try to straighten such nests as well. But more experienced beekeepers of critically weak bee colonies ruthlessly reject or bring them together with stronger ones, while removing the queen that did not meet expectations.

Reasons for the absence of summer in summer – what to do?

The state of absence of flight can be observed not only during the clearing flight, but also later in the spring and even in summer. The reason is usually the same – the weakness of the family. It is necessary to inspect suspicious hives, evaluating the nests according to the same criteria.

Why don't bees fly out of the hives?

Perhaps there is little brood in the family, but on the contrary, there is enough feed. Flying insects only occasionally flies for water. In this case, it is necessary to cut and insulate the bee family (if the inspection is carried out in the spring). The entrances are also reduced (for the passage of 2-3 insects) to minimize the danger of attack and theft.

If possible, you can replace the uterus with a highly productive one.

Read: How to properly plant a uterus

In general, we closely follow the flight of our wards, determine their condition based on it, take timely measures to correct problem families, and, if necessary, ruthlessly discard them!

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Anna Evans

Author ✓ Farmer

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