Strange Bee Activity

This just happened to me over the last 2 days. There were 4 bees hanging around our enclosed patio, flying low and slow as though they were weighted down or half asleep. One was trying with all he had in him to get in behind the light fixture on the outside of the garden shed. Another was walking up and down the bottom of the fence as though looking for something. The other 2 were just buzzing around in total confusion, neither of them getting more than maybe 10 feet off the ground. In all my years as a home gardener, I have never seen bees behave this way unless there has been an unexpected cold snap (which there has not). Unfortunately, I had to swat them with the flyswatter because my hubby had to go up to fix a couple of shingles on the garden shed today and the bees were having none of it. There is no hive anywhere near the house or in my garden, which is always kept neat and trimmed, nor is there any sign of bees in the garden shed. I keep wondering if this has anything to do with that bee disease that they've been talking about for the last couple of years. Have any of you seen bees acting weird like this?? I'm in Saskatchewan, by the way.

What type of bees, Honey, Bumble? They have a short life cycle too and I have wondered if sometimes the behavior of some bees(confusion and disorientation) is because they are dying naturally. Of course there is so much involved with these fellas too, gmo, chemicals, cell phone transmissions, weather...so who knows.

spec

maybe they were looking for somewhere to make a hive? i dont know.. i guess you would have to know alot about bee activities or be an expert in the subject, to know for sure if they were acting strange or were sick..

reply to post by Tasty Canadian


Colony Collapse Disorder.
People are blaming Monsanto and I thnk they are correct.
Killing small birds, butteries and now even eagles. Monsanto has to go.
This is very strange bee-havior too. Be careful you don't get covered yourself!

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


Actually they were huge bumble bees.

When I read your thread I was so angry that I wanted to take a fly swatter to YOU! As a home gardener i'm sure you're aware that we need bees to pollinate our plants. With all the info over the past couple of years about the loss of our beloved honey bees, I can't believe you killed 4 of them so you could replace a couple of shingles on your shed....

I think bumble bee nests are usually in the ground someone probably put something over the opening on accident or some such thing and that confused the bees

reply to post by i8miceb4


Chill darlin'. I felt bad having to do it, but hubby has bee-o-phobia (I'm sure there's a name for it, but I have no clue what it is) Please believe me when I say that these 4 particular bees were not interested in pollenating anything. My garden is full of lilies, roses, etc. and these bees were completely uninterested. I believe they were sick...in which case perhaps death might have been a good thing, so they wouldn't take it back to the hive. Forgive me?? By the way, this is a "no swatting zone" lol.

well their nests are usually really small and easily overlooked, the queen makes a new nest by herself each spring

you wouldnt expect for there to be too many members of a bumblebee hive like a couple dozen or so

I don't know much about honey bees, but in my area I have heard many people talking about how many yellow jackets nests they are having to burn out. They are nasty and have their nests in ground so you don't see them until you walk on them or run a mower. My ex has suffered multiple stings every time he mows this this year, and they are always in new nests in different places.


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reply to post by Tasty Canadian


What a strange post!!
Why are you interested in the bees behaviour if you just killed them anyway??
No logic here at all!

And Please don't do it again either!!....If you see a bee in your garden and for some strange reason it scares you or you feel thretend by it please walk away from it or go inside and not kill it!

And it is typical behaviour of bumble bees as they are ground dwellers!

May I suggest Bumble Bee Conservation as a source of info if your are really interested!!







Oh but Don't tell them you killed 4 as I don't think they will be impressed!!

I was just talking to my neighbor and he brought up the point that he has not seen a SINGLE bee in our area. We are surrounded by fields that lead up to forest. It is easy to overlook but...I have not seen many either.

A couple of weeks ago while on a walk, I stopped to watch some bumblebees that were buzzing around some flowers. I was happy just to be seeing bees in the first place. But my stomach sunk as I watched them because they all looked like they were having seizures. They looked like some invisible hand was shaking the living tar out of them as they also tried to fly from flower to flower. Not only that, but the flowers they were at looked mostly dead themselves. Almost like the bees weren't really collecting pollen, but just going through the motions. It was a little unreal.

yep! i've been watching these poor little guys sputter and crash and eventually die for the last 2-3 years. they can't fly, barely crawl, keep falling over, almost like they're drunk or something. it's really sad to watch. their little wings working so hard to fly, but they just fall over, never even get off the ground.

Originally posted by gemdog
yep! i've been watching these poor little guys sputter and crash and eventually die for the last 2-3 years. they can't fly, barely crawl, keep falling over, almost like they're drunk or something. it's really sad to watch. their little wings working so hard to fly, but they just fall over, never even get off the ground.

I'm in NE. The blue globe thistles on either side of my deck walk have just come into bloom, and I was pretty gratified to see 4 or 5 "bumblers" out there, busily collecting pollen. They appear to be in fine shape this year, and for the time these plants are in bloom I will use the other access to water the rest of my flowers and leave these guys alone to their business. Haven't seen but one honeybee, though.

I saw a pretty much all black bumble bee today. It also seemed to be having difficulties with fly and navigation.

I love bumble bees, they're so unlikely. Truly beautiful.

I have lots of flowers for them in my garden, It's upsetting to say the least that they are struggling so.

I was so happy to see last month PLENTY of honeybees all over the dandelions in my yard every morning and I thought this month that the bees were looking for those flowers after I mowed but no....now the yard is swarming with Yellowjackets!! They're all over the yard just as the bees were on the flowers last month! I've never seen so many wasps on the ground with no fruit or sustenance as a reason!

reply to post by Tasty Canadian


Bee Killer!!!

The Unicorn (last of his kind) was acting funny so I killed him!

Sounds about right!?!

I dare say we have a killer-Bee on our hands!

reply to post by Tasty Canadian


Huge bumblebees are usually queens - they may have been looking for a place to build a nest. ...The behavior is sort of typical for spring, when they're just starting out - not so much for hot mid-summer when they would have a swarm with them.