These bees for the most part seem to be young fuzzy bees. Most wash boarding
we observe is older forager bees with worn wings when a flow stops.
I have been told by other commercial beekeepers is caused by foragers upset
the flow has stopped (kind of like a person pacing the floor)
Judging from the quick glance at the lower entrance I would say the bees are
not in a flow and apparently not wash boarding at the lower entrance or a
close up would have been made.
few bees using the top entrance.
interesting.
I do not see the behavior when a strong flow is on. Not all hives do the
wash board and always seem to be a hive strong enough for bees to hang out
on the front, I saw a couple hives wash boarding in a yard yesterday but did
not look closely.
This time of year when warm there are beards on most hives. quite a bit of
bees. The older bees seem to take a guard stance covering the same area but
not wash boarding.
If the bees had been wash boarding all summer to polish or clean I would
expect to see paint missing by now so *in my opinion* I would guess not a
serious cleaning effort of cleaning or polishing.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxjc4tSKJFs&feature=youtu.be&a
bob
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