Orientation Flights

I think there’s a heavy nectar flow somewhere that just bloomed. The bees are in and out like crazy. Usually there are a couple dozen hanging around the landing board. Not this morning. Other than a few guards, everyone is either taking off or bringing in resources – nectar and pollen mostly, though bees will harvest fungi for medicinal purposes and sap which they use to make propolis that gets used to seal holes and glue the pieces of the hive together. And some bees are “water bees” – they go out to find water for bees who have jobs inside the hive and can’t get their own.

I think we had another big population boom. They were out doing orientation flights at about noon. The new bees/newbies all go out to practice finding home again by flying in larger and larger circles and figure-eights.

Now, compare this to a couple days later.

That morning it was pretty cold this morning. 14°C. The bees don’t seem too interested in going out to forage yet. There are a few coming in and out, but nothing like before. A wasp thought he could take advantage of them all still sleeping and sneak in, but there are still enough guards to push him back into the cold again. If you want to fast forward to the wasp coming in from the left it’s at about 45 seconds in. You can also see some very clear pollen pants coming in at the same time from the right.

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