As this was such a good example of what I call a 'Pheromone Curtain', I thought I'd post a couple of pics. Sometimes this behaviour - setting up a curtain of bees, all fanning pheromone outwards, is seen when a virgin takes her nuptial flight, presumably to help her locate the right hive on her return.
Some of you may recognise this hive - it's been used for anti-robbing experiments - but now the robbing is over and the nucs are stable, it's time to cull the queen in the upper brood box. Which is a pity as she's been most productive, but sadly that has come with a high price (bad behaviour).
What I found intriguing was how the bees have spaced themselves out from each other in order to maximise the plume area. As bees normally tend to cluster, I think this shows significantly purposeful behaviour.
That box entrance faces West, so you can see from the shadows this first shot was taken just after midday - probably around 1 or 2 p.m.
Here's a second shot, with the shadows indicating this was much later, probably around 6 p.m. - so they had kept up this exact behaviour all afternoon ...
Of course, they didn't know that their queen had gone for a vodka bath. Still, they'll be getting a new queen very shortly.
LJ