Bees that can not fly

[jpcows]

I have been watching my bees and I noticed 1 bee who was not able to fly. I captured her and have her in a jar. Do bee stop flying and walk around in circles before they die or could it be something else.

[Jacobs]

Bees that have aged out and are no longer useful to the hive will walk out of the hive and crawl away or are sometimes dragged out. If you didn't see anything else unusual about the bee (like shriveled or deformed wings) it is probably the normal process of a bee going away to die.

Welcome to the forum. Please put your location in your profile. You are welcome to post no matter where you are located, but because all beekeeping is local, having the city or county location can help with some responses.

[ski]

Its most likely an old bee as Jacobs has described, the other possibility is tracheal mites. But if you only have one or just a few bees walking around then its not a problem that you need to treat.

Tracheal mites get into the bees breathing passages so they cannot breathe very well and cannot fly. Beekeepers treated for tracheal mites several years ago but I have not heard of anyone treating for them in the last couple of years.

[Ron Young]

In my reading, and understanding of bees and what role they play in the hive at different ages, a bee does not leave the hive to forage until around 22 days old. I have seen a good number of bees crawling round in the grass, under the hive stand, and on the hive stand near the one hive that has swarmed numberous times this year. This leads me to ask this question, "Has anyone ever studied the flight ability of young bees? Do they do an orientation flight shortly after hatching, or is the orientation flights that we see at our hives, that of bees 18-22 days old at the point that they move to guard and ventilation bees?"

I am wondering if these bees that are seen, are not simply too young to fly well. I have picked them up, looked at the wings, and size of the bee, and all looks great to the naked eye.