Bee altitude

[Padfootpaddy]

Good rainy Sunday afternoon to you all.
How high do bees fligh on their way to and from finding a nectar source?

 

[oliver90owner]

I would simply guess at 3 - 8m, but maybe a lot less if needing to tack against a strong wind.

Of course if the hive/nest is already on a six storey building......


Think, bees wasting energy is not a usual trait for the species.

Welcome to the forum, by the way.

Regards, RAB

 

[Finman]

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Here they must fly in 15 -30 m and that they get over woods.

 

[Padfootpaddy]

I would simply guess at 3 - 8m, but maybe a lot less if needing to tack against a strong wind.

Of course if the hive/nest is already on a six storey building......


Think, bees wasting energy is not a usual trait for the species.

Welcome to the forum, by the way.

Regards, RAB

Thank you!

 

[Padfootpaddy]

Thank you

 

[Poly Hive]

In the Shetlands they have been seen using the lee of the stone walls to make it home with out spending too much precious nectar fighting the Atlantic winds.

PH

 

[Haughton Honey]

I once heard somewhere that the average altitude for flight was 15 feet....for what it's worth.

 

[Finman]

.
When i have here a bad cold wind, bees do not fly very far from home.
They fly to nearest flowers couple of hundred meters but at the distance of 500 m i see nothing. they are able to use the earth level and sun shining.

 

[Finman]

I once heard somewhere that the average altitude for flight was 15 feet....for what it's worth.

when bees dive from sky into their hives, they fly higher than 5 m. difficult to say because i can not see them many metres far away.

It is said that you may look what direction bees take when they go to their hive.
I must admit that 5-6 m is maximun what i see them when they take their orientation circles.

 

[drstitson]

we are on a steep hill - in the right light we can watch them heading in and out upto around 75m away. due to the contour ours fly with a shallow trajectory away from the hive but most end up at least level with top of a telegraph pole halfway down the hillside, many are higher.

 

[nonstandard]

@surreybeekeeper keeps his bees fairly close to Gatwick airport and has had no near-miss reports yet.

 

[Jordy]

Watching mine leave the hive, within a couple of metres they have risen to almost rooftop height or more which seems to be their cruising altitude around here. They return from about that height too, but hard to see as they nosedive in like a WW2 stuka.

 

[Finman]

we are on a steep hill - in the right light we can watch them heading in and out upto around 75m away. due to the contour ours fly with a shallow trajectory away from the hive but most end up at least level with top of a telegraph pole halfway down the hillside, many are higher.

hm. If a bee sits on a dandelion flower, 15- 20 m is enough to me. when i shoot with air rifle to target, i must go nearer to look. Wow, 75 m!

 

[TBRNoTB]

hm. If a bee sits on a dandelion flower, 15- 20 m is enough to me. when i shoot with air rifle to target, i must go nearer to look. Wow, 75 m!

ah! but drstitson has a telescope and range-finder set up in the garden, plus the bees each have a dab of day-glo orange!

 

[Finman]

 

[drstitson]

as i said "in the right light"......

i'm talking early morning in winter (before 10) and watching the bees head off in or return from an easterly direction - low sun means light reflects off them making them visible for a really long way.

our plot is a fairly square hectare. telegraph pole is dead centre. bees can easily be seen at it and a good way past down towards a dark patch of woodland at boundary, usually visible somewhere halfway between pole and wood.

Finman - is the idea of taking potshots at bees on distant dandelions an attempt to control what they collect? hardly efficient or cost effective approach in my book!!!