At the Hive Entrance.pdf - BioBees

Observation
Explanation
was opened 60 meters away from the apiary. The
hampered bees, full of honey and having acquired the
same odor, enter their former hive without concern
and find a small population with brood of all ages.
Not a single bee was wasted. My doubts concerni~g
the queen seemed to be unfounded. Nevertheless I
continued my observations, for the small colony had )
undergone no small amount of maqipulations that
day: at 7.00 a.m. transfer in the transport box, then a
car journey. At 8 a.m., transferred again, into the
empty hive and finally the incoming rush oChoneystuffed
bees. My thoughts had been well directed, for
at 11.00 a.m. the queen, a splendid specimen of Troiseck,
appeared at the hive entrance. She was neither
pursued or attacked by the bees, but surrounded by
some fifteen workers that treated her in a friendly
manner, caressing her with their antennae. She climbed
along the front of the hive, was then carefully picked
up and returned to the hive through the rear. I
continued to watch the hive entrance for a good halfour.
The queen did not show herself. I am firmly convinced
that the bees which surrounded her made up
her "court" as is the case when she is egg-laying. The
reader can now imagine, what would have occured
had I not continued my observations at the hive
entrance when the operation seemed completed.
Three weeks later the population was nursing five frames
of brood and one was able to give the super in
due time.
Bees fly, with an angled body These are robbers searching for, and usually finding,
and their legs hanging, from weak or queenless hives or hives with too large an
one hive entrance to another to entrance.
get in.
On certain cold days during This is the way the bees close the hive entrance to
April, or cool evenings, when protect their brood against the cold. At the same time
the bees have long stopped they prevent the heat of the nest escaping too rapidly.
flying the hive entrance of The reason is the same if, on such days the following
strong or even weak but well- is seen: having opened the hive from behind, look at
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