# The honey bees are washboarding today



## Jetjockey (May 18, 2011)

My bees do this ALL the time what are they doing?


----------



## Intheswamp (Jul 5, 2011)

Jetjockey said:


> My bees do this ALL the time what are they doing?


I don't think anybody knows.

Ed


----------



## beeG (Jun 18, 2011)

I thought they were just licking stuff off the surface . Mine do that too and it looks like they are just eating tiny particals of something off the surface


----------



## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Washboarding happens at the beginning of summer (for the bees, not the calendar... they know better than we do. Lol.) or any dearths. The "two-step" type dance that they are performing is actually a method of marking the entrance of the hive with a pheromone pattern which is used to limit the entry of robbers that are expected to invade during the following dearths... if you continue to watch, you will notice that nearly every incoming bee that touches the landing board will be met by a "kiss", "pat", or a "punch"... this happens more so as the flow or even the need of a flow diminishes... during the spring flow, you will not see much of this, but as the flow slows, they will begin to build up security forces and lower foraging forces... this happens usually between may and July in the US, and then again between September and November (again, depending upon the flows of the area)... if you extract more than what they would consider "surplus", they will regress from this behavior and continue to focus their work force on foragers.


----------



## heaflaw (Feb 26, 2007)

Very interesting. Where can I learn more about washboarding.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

a couple of my hives started washboarding today. it could be that the flow is slowing down. until today, we have been short on rainfall, and a lot of the spring blooms are playing out. what is interesting is that swarming is going on like crazy, which usually happens at the beginning of the main flow. perhaps the early warm up this year has thrown the normal timing off.


----------

