Orientation Flights

Orientaion Flights! What are they? Why does it happen?

Questions will be answered!

One question I had, and I'm sure many of you have, when I was first getting into bees was how they know where the hive is when they need to return. If you have already watched the first video in this post, you know what I'm talking about: orientation flights. An orientation flight is exactly what it sounds like, the time when bees who have never exited the hive learn its location relative to the surrounding are. I hope to answer three questions about orientation flights.

1.What does it look like? - As you may have noticed in the video, the bees swarm around the entrance of the hive. This time is far more active than usual outside the hive. The bees hover in front facing the hive and do wide circles in the air to learn the location of the hive.

2. Why does it happen? - This is a time for all the bees that are about three weeks old to exit the hive for the first time. So far they have spent their life as "nurse bees" tending to baby bees, but it is now time for them to graduate and become forager bees. The bees are learning the appearance of the hive and surrounding landmarks, which they can remember, so that they can find there way home in the evening. Bees will also relieve themselves during this time, so be careful where you stand when observing!

3. When does it happen? - The orientation flights usually occur during or just after the hottest part of the day. Where I live, the flights are around 3-4p.m. Orientation flights happen daily if the weather is nice.

Watch my next video below to see what a hive normally looks like during the day.

*both videos are from my hive

The Difference Between Queen, Drone, and Worker Bees

I was browsing through all the pictures of my hive and came across some great pictures of the queen, some drones, and worker bees, so I have decided to do a post on the three different types of bees.

As you have probably guessed, the queen is the long bee in the center of the photo. You may also bee wondering why there is a red dot on her back (no, that is not natural). Check out the chart below, it should clear things up. Because my queen has been marked with a red dot, I know that she was born this year in 2013. These dots make it easy for beekeepers to track the age of queens, which is useful when you want to replace all your old queens. Although both the queen and worker bees are female, the queen is the only bee that is able to lay fertile eggs. Also, the queen can live for five years instead of the weeks or months of a worker. Queens are always longer than worker bees, and she is easy to spot because there is always a circle of attending bees around the her. There are other subtle differences as well, for example, the queen does have a stinger, but it is rarely used and is not barbed.

Credit for this chart goes to beeinformed.org

This is the drone bee. Drone bees are the only male bees in the hive. They are pretty useless. Drones have no stinger and don't forage. The only thing drones can do is reproduce, unless you count eating the hive's honey supply as a talent. In the spring, drones fly out and search for another queen on a mating flight. Only a few will find her, and after mating with the queen, each will fall to his death. In the fall when there are no more mating queens, the workers will kick all of the drones out of the hive because they are no longer useful. The workers will literally drag the drones out of the hive and prevent their reentry, which is pretty hilarious.

The drones have some aesthetic differences as well. Look at the bottom center of this picture. There is a drone right next to a worker bee, so you can really see the difference between them. The drone has much larger eyes that pretty much cover his whole head. Drones are also slightly longer and wider than worker bees.

Finally, the workers. You can see plenty of worker bees in almost all of my pictures, and the worker is probably what you imagine when you think of a bee. Worker bees are infertile female bees. They start out as nurse bees that take care of the queen and feed larva, but after a few weeks, they will exit the hive and begin foraging for pollen and nectar. 

That is a basic explanation of the three types of bees. If you have any other questions post them in the comments.