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["Raby, Brian {20-4~Indianapolis}" <BRIAN.RABY@ROCHE.COM>]

Title: Re: [nafex] Bee Habits

Phil,

 

I think you hit the nail on the head when it comes to the visualization.  Last year, I remember my wife and I needed to move a hive over a few meters.  She wanted to do this at dusk because by then most of the bees were in the hive.  I didn't know what that meant until we jostle the hive a bit as we were doing the move.  As you expect, quite a few bees came out to see what the heck was going on.  As we got the hive settled in the final spot, I walked back to the area where it was and found quite a few flying around in circles trying to find the hive that was once there.  It was absolutely amazing to watch.  Needless to say, we lost quite a bit of workers from that.

 

Brian

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Norris [mailto:COUSINPHIL@ACADIA.NET]
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 7:37 PM
To: nafex@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [nafex] Bee Habits

Tom,

I ain't no bee expert but I do know that bees navigate by visual cues.  When a bee leaves the hive for the first time it flies backwards and takes mental "snapshots" of the hive and the surrounding area.  It is easy to confuse bees by moving rocks and other objects near the hive.  And if you move the hive six feet the bees will congregate around the old spot and may not be able to find the new location.  I think I read once that bee vision is poor, not because the compound eye is deficient, but because the bee brain is so small that it lacks the processing power to handle all the visual input.

But it is possible that the bee continues to take mental snapshots as it ventures farther and farther from the hive.  If you hand carried a bee to a location it had never been before, I would think it would be likely that the bee wouldn't know where the hell it was.

On a related subject,  my bees are very sensitive to sounds.  They get angry when I mow near the hive with the little high pitched lawn mower but they don't seem to mind the deeper sound of the tractor with its big mower.  Needless to say the trees in that section of the orchard don't get mowed as well as elsewhere.

Phil Norris

East Blue Hill, Maine

Z4

Hi,

Dumb question...

How do bees navigate away from the hive, and then return to
it?

I know that they do a dance in the hive which tells other
bees where nectar can be found, which I believe has to do
with the position of the sun in the sky.

But would the bees you hand carried to the plants be "lost"
and not know the way back to the hive?

Since hives are moved around to pollinate crops, the bees
must have some means of remembering where the hive is on a
daily basis.

Hopefully, a bee expert will be able to reveal how dumb this
question is.

Regards,
Tom

"Raby, Brian {20-4~Indianapolis}" wrote:

>  Don,We keep about 5 hives ourselves (my wife being the
> bee keeper), and she suggested that she collect some bees
> from the hive and place them on the strawberry plants to
> sort of wake them up to the fact that there is a nectar
> source nearby.  Did you ever try to do that with your
> bees,  kind of hand hold them over to a food source?
> Anyway, either the strawberries are self-fertile or other
> flying objects are doing the pollinating, but I'm going to
> have a full crop this year.Brian
>
>      -----Original Message-----
>      From: Don Yellman
>      [mailto:dyellman@earthlink.net]
>      Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 12:58 PM
>      To: nafex@yahoogroups.com
>      Subject: [nafex] Bee Habits
>
>      Brian:
>           I have kept bees for over 20 years, and
>      have learned this about
>      them: each bee only works one type of flower at
>      a time.  Your bee kept
>      returning to the dandelion because she had been
>      assigned to dandelions.
>          That said, my bees have never been too
>      gung-ho for strawberries.
>      What pollination takes place on strawberries
>      seems to be done by
>      smaller, feral insects.  They must not have much
>      nectar or other
>      attraction for classic bees.  Even so, I have
>      never noticed that
>      strawberries fail to set due to lack of
>      pollination, so they may be, to
>      some extent, self-fertile, or they benefit from
>      some air pollination.
>
>      Rgds, Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
>
>
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--
Thomas Olenio
Ontario, Canada
Hardiness Zone 6a

Hi,

Dumb question...

How do bees navigate away from the hive, and then return to it?

I know that they do a dance in the hive which tells other bees where nectar can be found, which I believe has to do with the position of the sun in the sky.

But would the bees you hand carried to the plants be "lost" and not know the way back to the hive?

Since hives are moved around to pollinate crops, the bees must have some means of remembering where the hive is on a daily basis.

Hopefully, a bee expert will be able to reveal how dumb this question is.

Regards,
Tom

"Raby, Brian {20-4~Indianapolis}" wrote:

 Don,We keep about 5 hives ourselves (my wife being the bee keeper), and she suggested that she collect some bees from the hive and place them on the strawberry plants to sort of wake them up to the fact that there is a nectar source nearby.  Did you ever try to do that with your bees,  kind of hand hold them over to a food source?  Anyway, either the strawberries are self-fertile or other flying objects are doing the pollinating, but I'm going to have a full crop this year.Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Yellman [mailto:dyellman@earthlink.net]
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 12:58 PM
To: nafex@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [nafex] Bee Habits
 

Brian:
     I have kept bees for over 20 years, and have learned this about
them: each bee only works one type of flower at a time.  Your bee kept
returning to the dandelion because she had been assigned to dandelions.
    That said, my bees have never been too gung-ho for strawberries.
What pollination takes place on strawberries seems to be done by
smaller, feral insects.  They must not have much nectar or other
attraction for classic bees.  Even so, I have never noticed that
strawberries fail to set due to lack of pollination, so they may be, to
some extent, self-fertile, or they benefit from some air pollination.

Rgds, Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

--
Thomas Olenio
Ontario, Canada
Hardiness Zone 6a
 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

Yahoo! Groups Sponsor

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.