u/Bvan72

Here in the southern Appalachians we're in a severe drought, like 2 inches of rain all of spring with nothing in sight for another 8 to 10 days. Weather is still cool with lows in the 40s and still dipping in the high 30s.

On top of this we are in our major tulip poplar flow. but the bees are not making much of it. I checked my honey supers the other day and yeah about 1/4 of what it should be in normal year. My swarm catches are gobbling sugar water, bees normally wont touch sugar water when the tulip trees are in full bloom.

Not sure what im really trying to say other than ranting, I know like any farming its just frustrating to deal with.

I noticed from the drought map huge areas of the country are dry as well, so hows this working out with your bees?

I would post a vid but reddit wont let me do that or even a pic.

Anyways ive caught 3 swarms in my traps this week, got to see 2 of them arrive but something is currently going on with one. This swarm came in Friday, I watched them come in, was about 1.5 footballs worth of bees i estimate.

All seemed normal to about an hour ago i noticed a traffic jam of bees arriving, and looking up bees in the air darting around like a mini swarm. They are not leaving but creating a traffic jam with a couple of bees fanning their nasinov glands on landing board and also running around all over the front of the hive with hyper excited movement.

What the heck? I know africanized bees will take over colonies but we dont have them here. Its not robbing. I know what it looks like but it doesnt make sense to me. Any ideas?