3 You all will love this. MASSIVE BEE COLONY APPROACHED BY MAVIC 3. What? You think I was gonna do it? The music makes it fun too watch.
- Thread starter Don Testme
- Start date
NightFlightAlright
Well-Known Member
My Mini 2 been beezy in a bee attack. I was attacked today by many bees and they got chopped up in the blades. At about 50 feet they started following my drone. I would ascend and move forward fast, yet they kept following me. Finally, when I got to about 5 feet, they dispersed I had a mess on the body of the Mini2 to clean up afterwards,
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Almost certainly male honey bees, I would have sent the drone up and then flown it away from them. I doubt their intention was an attack, there was/were probably a virgin queen or queens in flight.
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NightFlightAlright
Well-Known Member
Those look like worker bees, not “male” bees (ironically know as drone bees, with the only purpose to mate the queen)…
I don’t know if you have the problem of Africanized bees there in the UK, but it is an actual problem here in Southern California. The Africanized bees are very aggressive, and will attack, unlike typical honey producing bees.
They will also swarm and begin creating hives in unusual places. It’s such a problem that here in Los Angeles, it’s not uncommon to call the fire department, they usually come out and foam them.
There maybe the odd worler in there but most look like drones to me, blunter rear ends. I remember their odd leg carriage and the fact that one pair of legs looked disproportionately large.
No Africanised here that I know of but when I kept bees Buckfast queens came from the States and or I think Israel. I seem to remember that import of American queens was stopped following the escape/release of the African queens or at least once they started to threaten USA.
I've gone into a Buckfast hive with no gear on and no smoker., but only once lol.
My old man's British Blacks needed a suit and gloves.
No Africanised here that I know of but when I kept bees Buckfast queens came from the States and or I think Israel. I seem to remember that import of American queens was stopped following the escape/release of the African queens or at least once they started to threaten USA.
I've gone into a Buckfast hive with no gear on and no smoker., but only once lol.
My old man's British Blacks needed a suit and gloves.
NightFlightAlright
Well-Known Member
Well, I’m basing my opinion from photos I’ve personally taken of Southern California worker bees—with some 20,000 species of bees worldwide, there is a bit of variety, I think of drones here as being longer/thinner IIR.
Interesting regarding importing queens to UK… yea, you don’t want the aggressive ones. The real problem is the Africanized ones are poor at honey production, and impact the commercial pollenization, colonies, which are a big business here in SoCal.
I am in southern Calif, and I've had this happen last year to me as well. I am thinking the sound of the props attracts them thinking it's the big queen!
I was sure that as the drone drew near the bees, the propwash would seriously disturb them. At least that's the "buzz" around here 
NightFlightAlright
Well-Known Member
Hmm well the mortal enemy of bees is wasps, and I’d venture that the mini sounds a lot more like a swarm of wasps…
Japanese/Asian hornets are going to be a big threat if they make a break through, they raid honey bee hives. Japanese honey bees know how to deal with them, ball the scouts and 'cook them'. BTW that's not a joke, the bees entice the hornet inside the hive, form a ball around it and cook it with their body heat.
'European' honey bees don't know how to deal with them .
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NightFlightAlright
Well-Known Member
I think I saw that on Discover… crazy defense… I wonder how long US or UK bees will take to adapt.
