Module 6 - nervous bees

[Mellifera Crofter]

Does anybody know how a nervous bee behaves, please? I've seen bees hiding their sting - is that nervousness? I know stropping a tongue is being submissive - but for all we know that bee is also nervous.
Kitta

[Neils]

We had a fair old discussion over this point and I think came to the conclusion that we'd never seen nervousness in a bee and that it was a junk question :) More seriously I think it was going to go back as a question to the BBKA because none of us could come up with a sensible answer to it.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Thanks Nellie -that was my feeling as well: a junk question mixed with a fair bit of anthropomorphising - but my husband is curious and very amused by the idea of a nervous bee. I had to ask.
Kitta

[Jon]

Could it mean 'runny' You get bees which are not calm on the comb.

[Neils]

The guy running our group is involved in the BBKA's education programme and he had no idea either.

[Jimbo]

My money would be on a frame of bees that continously run and move about on the frame and never seem to settle. This then makes it difficult to examine the bees or find the queen. In bee improvement it is one of the things you may want to breed out.

[gavin]

Rather too readily flying off the comb too?

[Mellifera Crofter]

Oh yes - runny, flighty bees. Thanks - I'm sure that will be a right answer.
Kitta

[Neils]

Bees running on the frames is apparently the right answer with agreement from the powers that be south of the border that its not a particularly well worded question.

[Easy beesy]

Agreed - not the best question but our groups consensus was running on comb, quick to flight, constant moving on frame.

Cx