Farrars rule

[wightbees]

Just come across Farra’s Rule . Thought that some might find it worth a chat about.

here’s a bit of a cut and paste


The rule Farrar , known by beekeepers for many years, says that the more the population increases greater hive is the individual production of each bee. This amounts to saying that it increases productivity and is known as a principle of synergy . This is because as the number of bees in a hive increases, the proportion of foragers also increases, according to the following table (Reid, 1980):

Total workers	10.000	20.000	30.000	40.000	50.000	60.000
Pecoreadoras	2.000	5.000	10.000	20.000	30.000	39.000
Percentage of foraging	20 %	25 %	30 %	50 %	60 %	65 %
Population weight	1 kg	2 kg	3 kg	4 kg	5 kg	6 kg
Honey yield	1 kg	4 kg	9 kg	16 kg	25 kg	36 kg

 

[Finman]

What I have noticed about yield size, mu rule is

- good queen
- big hive
- good pastures
- not too much foragers on pastures.

The most easy thing is rear big hives. You buy good queens, which can lay 6-8 langstroth boxes bees.

It is easy. You just wait.

To get a good yield, you need good pastures. A mixture of best honey plants.

You do not want another apiary to share your good pastures. Neither you do not put to pastures too much own hives.

I can have a good size hive. From poor pastures it gets only 30 kg honey. From better pastures you get 80 kg. And from best pastures 150 kg.

Then you put an ordinary colony 4 boxes on good pastures. Hive has pollen, brood and rarly honey. Ypu get a splended weather amd splended flow. But the hive is almost full. It cannot bring so much nectar from fields, what it has capacity. It does not have nectar storing capasity.

 

[BugsInABox]

more the population increases greater hive is the individual production of each bee

Sounds like Yoda!

 

[Finman]

To me Farrar's table says nothing. The yield numbers are miserable. And table does not tell how long it takes to get those kilos. I do not know, how farrar got those forager percents. If you have a balance hive, you can see, how much the weight dropped when foragers went out and how they came in before evening.

From raspberry pastures one hive is able to get 7 kg honey in one day. In most time of summer bees eate all what they get. Rasberry blooms 2 weeks, and then 7 kg days are over. But 70 kg rasberry honey in 2 weeks is not rare. If you have too much hives + your neighbours' hives, you may get 20-30 kg.

Then I invented "bee labour working hours". If the day temps are high, there are much more early and late working hours. Some day working hours can be 30% more than another day, and the day's crop can be 30% more. I see it from balance.

In cool days working hours may be 3 hours, and in hot weathers 8 hours.

 

[JamezF]

I guess if the queen reaches a rate of laying that outpaces the population required for house bee duties then all others are free to forage (or rather many of the more recently emerged bees will spend less time needing to be house bees) so perhaps intuitively this result makes sense, though intuition is no basis for a sound logical argument.

The "total workers" value is a bit vague though. I assume it means the peak number of workers, in which case suggesting that the yield should be proportional to the peak number of workers seems counter-intuitive given that the colony won't have that peak number for the entire season. It feels too simplistic, which doesn't mean that it's wrong, but I think more justification is required

I'd guess the rule could only apply when there's good weather and an abundance of nectar, too. Confine 60,000 bees to the hive because there's bad weather for a week or two and a huge amount of honey will disappear.

I can only find a reference to the appearance of the rule in Farrar's 1930's book. Perhaps he has more explanation of the details there. Without the additional detail I think most discussion is actually going to be guesswork.

Otherwise, I'm disappointed to find that "pecoreadoras" are not some sort of spicy Mexican street food, but is the Spanish for "foragers".

James

 

[BugsInABox]

Your going to think I'm Randy in disguise but does this model talk to a similar theory:
http://chickabuzz.com/model.html

 

[Fusion_power]

Farrer's writings on population size compared with production emphasize one very important thing. The number of nurse bees in the hive maxes out when the queen is at max egg production. He documented this rather thoroughly in comparisons of hives of various sizes. Say a queen is laying 2000 eggs per day which is her capacity. In 21 days she will have laid 42,000 eggs. Since average life of a worker in a heavy flow is about 36 days, that means 2000 eggs can hatch per day for 36 days before population growth becomes self-limiting. This corresponds to a hive with 72,000 workers of which roughly 1/3 will be occupied with in-hive duties and the rest will be out foraging. There are a few ways to change this dynamic. If the queen lays 3000 eggs daily, the population increases to 108,000 bees with a foraging population of 70,000. The advantage of a good queen becomes evident in a comparison like this. Similarly, if each worker lives an extra week, the foraging population increases by 2000 X 7 or 14,000 more bees. Selecting for worker longevity has been done, but with mixed results because workers that don't forage tend to live longer. In other words, it is possible to select for a trait that appears to promote higher production, but the actual effect is negative.

Another dynamic changer is how aggressively a given colony forages. Some workers never forage or if they do, bring in minimal amounts of nectar. Breeding for more effective workers - meaning workers that forage aggressively and haul in loads of nectar - is one mechanism that Brother Adam exploited.

Timing is another concern. A colony that had to maximize population for a spring flow may hit peak population either too early or too late. Getting it just right is a challenge beekeepers have been trying to meet for a lot of years. I have an early spring flow starting @April 20th which is hard for most colonies to prepare for. My solution is to run 32mm frame end bars which boosts spring buildup enough to split most colonies before the flow and get a crop from the parent and the split.

 

[Finman]

I guess if the queen reaches a rate of laying that outpaces the population required for house bee duties then all others are free to forage (or rather many of the more recently emerged bees will spend less time needing to be house bees) so perhaps intuitively this result makes sense, though intuition is no basis for a sound logical argument

James

This thing is very well researched. No need to use own "logic".

A worker bee is 3 weeks as home bee and 3 weeks forager. It can be seen from a swarm . It takes 4 weeks, before a swarm gets new workers at the end of that waiting period there are very few bees left in the hive.

It is beekeepers' hope, that home bees can go out to forage. When it is a good flow, quite a lot bees are needed to handle and store honey inside the hive. Brooding rises too, and more bees are needed to nurse larvae.

 

[Finman]

Your going to think I'm Randy in disguise but does this model talk to a similar theory:
http://chickabuzz.com/model.html

That varroa model is actually taken from Italian bee professor Nanetti 20 years ago.

 

[Amari]

From raspberry pastures one hive is able to get 7 kg honey in one day. In most time of summer bees eate all what they get. Rasberry blooms 2 weeks, and then 7 kg days are over. But 70 kg rasberry honey in 2 weeks is not rare. If you have too much hives + your neighbours' hives, you may get 20-30 kg..

I don't think we have raspberry pastures anywhere in UK. Yields better than oilseed rape it seems.
What are the qualities of raspberry honey: colour, taste, speed of crystallisation etc?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I don't think we have raspberry pastures anywhere in UK

used to be plenty in Scotland

 

[JamezF]

I don't think we have raspberry pastures anywhere in UK.

Perhaps a near equivalent in Scotland? I believe a lot of raspberries are grown there.

James

 

[JamezF]

Snap!

 

[Erichalfbee]

I don't think we have raspberry pastures anywhere in UK. Yields better than oilseed rape it seems.
What are the qualities of raspberry honey: colour, taste, speed of crystallisation etc?

I'm sure raspberry honey crystallises pretty quickly.

 

[Apiarisnt]

ad fontes

 

[Poly Hive]

Not as much as used to be grown due to the closure of the jam factory at Montrose. Might have been Hartley's but not 100% sure.

Rasp honey is near water white, is at times profuse, and as said granulates very fast and is also anecdotally responsible for my becoming a beekeeper. Wedmore lists it in list 2 and says: Honey of fine flavour good intermediate crop where abundant.

PH

 

[Fusion_power]

Different bramble species produce significantly different honeys. Wild blackberry in my area yields heavily just about every year usually producing a surplus of mediocre flavored amber honey. Raspberry is not adapted to this area though a few varieties can take summer heat. I am always amazed when I visit an area adapted to raspberry culture at the huge fields of plants with loads of fruit.

 

[Finman]

What are the qualities of raspberry honey: colour, taste, speed of crystallisation etc?

The taste is almost nothing. Color is almost water

 

[Amari]

The taste is almost nothing. Color is almost water

Sounds similar to borage honey

 

[Colinkemp]

Sounds similar to borage honey

Does anyone have experience with honey from blackcurrants. I have 2 colonies on acres of them. This will be the first year.
Thanks