Do bees remember where flowers are.

[biglongdarren]

Maybe a very silly question but if bees were working a field of flowers some distance from the hive would they remember to fly straight till it again the next morning or if the weather was bad would they remember a few days later?

Darren.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Maybe a very silly question but if bees were working a field of flowers some distance from the hive would they remember to fly straight till it again the next morning or if the weather was bad would they remember a few days later?

Darren.

Yes
If the weather has closed in for a few days they do a few laps round the hive first.

 

[beeno]

Most of the bees revisit previously discovered forage as long as it is yielding.

 

[Ian123]

The obvious one none have mentioned is scout bees reporting back, they’ve remember and provide a map.

 

[oliver90owner]

Spot on, Ian. Bees forage from the best forage, not necessarily the ones they foraged yesterday! Bees are not stupid.

They soon learn if a better yield is from somewhere else (preferably closer to the hive than further away - but they will know which crop is most cost-effective in energy terms). Scout bees are the ‘early birds that catch the worm’. If the weather has been poor, another crop may well be chosen on return to foraging. That said, yesterdays foragers would return to the same crop with out ‘re-programming’ if nothing has changed (the scouts would still be giving out that information, anyway, I suppose.

 

[biglongdarren]

Thank you.