An attempted swarm takeover, your ideas wanted???

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

I will describe what I am seeing of the weird hive,  then I give you history and all important misc info:

The bees approx 150 are on the ground, directly below landing,  6 clusterers as if balling a queen, bees crawling, disorientation, trying to fly but most cannot.  The bees slowly crawl off into the grass where I assume they die.  Only 3 dead bees in front of the hive.  Bees are different ages as determined by the hair or lack of on their back.  Wings have intergerity, no dwarf wing virus, no K wing, no nosema.  NO FIGHTING, none.  A massive orenitation flight is what caught my eye to this hive, then I noticed clustered bees on the ground, like a tiny swarm. 

All hives are on 18 inch stands.  This is a double deep 10 frame Lang, very strong good population,  1 year old with adjacent healthy hives only inches away.  In fact all 22 hives including nucs appear normal except for this one single hive. The stores are good, having several frames of capped honey and pollen.  The bees on the entrance appear normal, maybe 150 to 200 bees and act very normal, just like the other 21 hives.  Pearl white larva, capped brood as well, inspection showed nothing abnormal.  Lots of healthy bees.  Pull out bottom board is normal.

I am guessing here and way out on a limb.  Did I see an attempted swarm takeover that failed.  I checked the clustered bees, the ones on the ground to see if indeed there was a queen, just bees balled up is all I could see.

I will keep checking this hive and give updates as I see them.

4:20 pm, 3 hours later, maybe 30 bees clustered on the ground, unable to fly but the wings are ok.  I did gather some bees from the ground, placed these bees in the entrance and the guard bees paid no attention.

Any ideas.

[BeeMaster2]

Van,
It does sound like ?Usurpation. Taking over a hive.? the bees on the ground may have been stung and cannot fly. I think the massive orientation flight during the middle of the day is the giveaway.
Jim

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

You are a true Master, sawdust, Jim.  Thanks.

[BeeMaster2]

 

[Acebird]

If it was a usurpation why no fighting?

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Ace, if it was usurpation, it was a failed attempt.  This hive was strong, pop the lid and eight frames filled with bees, the bottom deep 10 frames filled with bees.

What caught me eye was a massive swarm of bees circulating in the air just in front of the hive.  I thought robbing so I immediately retrieved my entrance reducer, but there was no fighting, no bees on the seems or lid as usual for robbers to look for alternative entrance.  So I taught orientation flight... But balls of bees on the ground, what?s up with this???  There could have been fighting before I noticed the action, but I did not see damaged wings on the ground bees.  The bees on the ground were balled and would seperate easily but could not fly.  Kind of weird.

Today the hive is calm, as if nothing ever happened.

[Acebird]

I have never witnessed usurpation so I don't know.  Is it more likely to happen if the hive is queen right or queenless?

[BeeMaster2]

Ace,
I have witnessed 2 usurpation events. On the outside of the hive there are so many bees taking over the hive that they just move in and over whelm the bees.
I did not see any dead bees being dragged out of either hive.
It was  Wyatt A Mangum who witnessed and documented the first usurpation in the US. He talked about it and showed a video of one in progress during a UF Bee College class. Both hives balled their queens, probably protecting them during the take over. He was able to mark the intruding queen before she entered the hive. His queen was not marked. Three days later the native queen was dumped out of the hive.
Jim

[Ben Framed]

Ace,
I have witnessed 2 usurpation events. On the outside of the hive there are so many bees taking over the hive that they just move in and over whelm the bees.
I did not see any dead bees being dragged out of either hive.
It was  Wyatt A Mangum who witnessed and documented the first usurpation in the US. He talked about it and showed a video of one in progress during a UF Bee College class. Both hives balled their queens, probably protecting them during the take over. He was able to mark the intruding queen before she entered the hive. His queen was not marked. Three days later the native queen was dumped out of the hive.
Jim

This is very interesting information Jim. Thanks for sharing your knodlege!

[Michael Bush]

>It was  Wyatt A Mangum who witnessed and documented the first usurpation in the US

Well, in recent times it was Wyatt who wrote about it.  Here is an excerpt from C.C. Miller in 1917:

Q. I had 32 colonies of bees, and I have lost five of them. They will swarm and come out of their own hive and settle on the outside of some of the other hives, and leave their own hives empty, with lots of honey in them. When they settle on the other hives it causes a fight. What makes the bees do this?

A. Bees sometimes seem to have a mania for deserting their hives in spring and trying to force their way into other hives, and it isn't easy to say just why. Some think because they are weak and discouraged. Some think because they have started a lot of brood, and then the old bees have died off so rapidly that enough are not left to cover the brood. In any case the advice given is to have only strong colonies in the fall. This is sound advice on general principles, even if there should be some absconding the following spring in spite of strong colonies.
--C.C. Miller, A thousand answers to Beekeeping Questions, 1917