Lately in my home yard I'm noticing quite a few bees crawling on the ground
through the grass. They are sometimes drones. The behavior is hurried and
they appear disoriented, sometimes running in crazed circles if they make
it onto a smooth surface. At night you can hear them giving short little
buzzes as they try to make it through the ground cover. Otherwise the
colonies seem fine and are very active.
There were lots of ground-crawling groggy bees a few years ago when the
tracheal mites first appeared, and the "K-wing" symptom was obvious. Now
I'm not noticing any odd wing positioning with these bees. This is the
only yard where I had 100% winter survival. (I have patties in all the
hives, but have never used menthol.) Does this CRAWLING-about behavior
sound familiar to anyone? We've discovered that we must watch where we
step if not wearing shoes! Thanks muchly, JWG