Normal or not

[Steve4548]

I came home to see this. The hive is one week old

[Jen]

Hi Steve- That looks like an orientation flight to me, bees that are now out of the hive and will be foragers. I determine that by seeing many bees in front of the entrance, and facing the entrance. They are memorizing their own hive and surroundings so they know how to find their own hive upon return from foraging.

[Steve4548]

Thanks. First time I have seen this much activity!

[Riverrat]

Not sure. Doesn't quite look like orientation flights. They are moving to fast and are low. Usually you will see the bees hover in the front deep of the hive on an orientation flight.  Was any of the bees trying to get into the hive

[riverbee]

hmmm, i'm with riverrat, looks like it might be robbing......and the elevated hum........

EDIT AND ADD:

steve, looks like you have a bigger hive next to it?
was this a divide?

[Steve4548]

It looks like they are coming and going

[riverbee]

"t looks like they are coming and going"

okay steve. do you see any bees going to another hive in your yard?
robbers will come and go as well. it seems kind of 'frantic' in front, and not bees traveling up and down the hive as in normal orientation flights, and these can get rather busy as well. when bees orient, they fly out, and fly up and down, and in the localized area facing the hive and remembering their location and fly back in, and may do this a number of times.

you said the hive was a week old, was this from a divide or a package of bees you hived?  and what is in the hive for feed/sugar syrup?

if you see bits of wax on the bottom board, or dead bees, or on inspection chewed/torn comb this would be robbing.

[Jen]

Interesting!..... Hmmm, can robbing cause a swarm?

[Steve4548]

They are all back in as fast as it started. It got a lot worse. Then nothing. Just newbie jitters on my part. Oops . I will check for robbing this weekend

I'm using a hive top feeder with 1:1

It was a nuc that I hived ion Sunday

I have another hive about six feet away and I have seen some back and forth but just one bee here and there.

[Jen]

This is curious in my case as well, because I have seen this exact thing happen to my hives. I would watch for awhile and they would go back in. I just 'assumed' it was orientation. To this point I haven't seen any chewed comb, but I'll be looking for that.

Good thread here because of the video, Thanks Steve

[Steve4548]

No queen cells or swarm cells when I installed so I assumed it was not a swarm. Plus we are in a good flow right now with plenty of room

[Steve4548]

I thought they were leaving the house all together

[pistolpete]

as a precaution, you should reduce the entrance to about 1/2" wide.   Robbing can decimate a hive in just a couple of days, so don't wait too long.   I would have guessed robbing too.  Orientation flights are usually bees spiralling up and down in front of the hive.  Robbers tend to have that agitated side to side pattern.  Hard to tell from the video.

[Jen]

I took another look at the vid, Yeah, they sure do seem agitate! or maybe even aggressive

[Riverrat]

Interesting!..... Hmmm, can robbing cause a swarm?

Wont cause a swarm but it will kill a hive from the fighting, If that dont get them starvation might or they may abscond if robbed out.

[riverbee]

steve, i wouldn't wait to check on this nuc that you hived. i would do it pronto tomorrow if you can. the sooner the better, not wait for the weekend. if it's robbing, robbing can decimate a hive, and also kill the queen in the process.  or as rat said, kill a hive, starve or  abscond.

given what you said, and the video, IMHO i suspect robbing of this nuc:

"They are all back in as fast as it started. It got a lot worse.
I'm using a hive top feeder with 1:1
It was a nuc that I hived ion Sunday
I have another hive about six feet away"

if it's robbing you will lose this nuc if you wait, or have challenges for it to recover......
 

[Bakersdozen]

as a precaution, you should reduce the entrance to about 1/2" wide.   Robbing can decimate a hive in just a couple of days, so don't wait too long.   I would have guessed robbing too.  Orientation flights are usually bees spiralling up and down in front of the hive.  Robbers tend to have that agitated side to side pattern.  Hard to tell from the video.

Just what I was going to say.  I didn't see an entrance reducer.  On new colonies or weakened colonies in danger of being robbed I reduce the entrance to help the guard bees.  They have less area to defend.

I like the looks that hive stand.  I wouldn't mind having a couple of those.

[Steve4548]

The hive stand is from mann lake. They were presents to me. They work great and work well but are 80 a price.