# Strange ticking noises + Bees outside in the evening



## janellesHoneyRockets (Sep 6, 2013)

Helloo, go in and look or u will have a lot of dead bees. Think of your girls first. I do, when mine are cold I also take them inside and warm them up, and let them go when weather permits. have funn I definatley am. 3rd year beekeeper. :lookout:


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## Scpossum (May 4, 2014)

Are you sure it is not them making comb? When they make comb there is a lot of snap, crackle, and popping going on. You can hear it a lot of the time standing next to the hive. Just realized you are in France and the climate is different. They may not be making wax now.


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## AHudd (Mar 5, 2015)

It is amazing how much noise they make when drawing foundation. It sounds to me as if they are chewing wood.

Alex


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## Bowfinger (Apr 17, 2015)

Snap, Crackle, Pop, I've heard this sound . And it does sound like they are eating Rice Crispies.


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## Camping La Chassagne (Apr 17, 2016)

Thanks for all the replies!

In our first spring inspection (this was before I noticed the sounds), I saw that they have been busy making new comb: 






I did not know they make so much noise when drawing foundation. It sounds kind of mechanical to me, something involving thin metal, almost.

I have not been able to check the hive since (because of weather conditions), and I continued to hear the sounds (not in the evening, b.t.w., which would make sense, since they are not active then), but I did not have bees staying on the outside of the hive in the evening anymore. It might have been a coincidence that this happened the day I first noticed the sounds. I have a couple of dead bees each day, but that seems normal, right?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Strange ticking noises

"Your ear pressed consecutively against the glass partition of either hive would perceive a sound resembling a sort of chattering produced by the jaws of the workers occupied with the preparatory work of their architecture, a work which is performed upon beeswax only."--Huber in a letter to Elisa on Swarming, August 10, 1831


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