Honey season is almost upon us as our bees are taking orientation flights. This is a great sign to show that bees are healthy and happy early in the year.
Orientation flights are where bees circle the hive, sometimes in a figure eight pattern as shown in the video above. Bees do not know where the hive is like how you might know where your home or favorite restaurant is. Therefore they circle around the hive so that they know the location and landmarks around the hive. The knowledge of these landmarks and hive gives the bees a sense of direction where home is when they’re out on foraging runs. This can be compared to something like muscle memory, where you train a specific skill so that it becomes almost second nature.
Now seeing the bees happy and flying around might trick you into believing that they are fully active and have honey to provide. However this is not the case. You must do you best to avoid opening the hive too soon and collecting the honey because the bees still need it to thrive. If you take the honey out now the bees could suffer and potentially die. Trust when we say that there’s plenty to go around in the future. For now, seeing bees orienting themselves is a step in the right direction for some sweet honey.
~Written by Jack Geslock
About the Author: Jack Geslock is a graduate of University of Lynchburg where he minored in Writing/English and Business Management. Jack is passionate about writing clear and concise content. He is an author passionate about helping individuals and organizations optimize their time and achieve their goals. Connect with Jack on LinkedIn
Comments