Foraging distances.

[Finman]

.
Natural selection has given playcards into your hands. It will not help you in the game.

 

[Poly Hive]

The efficiency depends on the strength of the nectar. That ability is in the bee already, fine tuned over the years.

PH

 

[Finman]

The efficiency depends on the strength of the nectar. That ability is in the bee already, fine tuned over the years.

PH

Question is what is your efficiency Mr/Mrs. Beekeeper.

Of course bees fly inside the circle 3 km . It is 2 800 hectares.
Inside 1 km radius you have 300 hectares.

Inside 3 km you have almost 10 times more pastures than inside 1 km.
But does it make you honey yield bigger?

Inside 5 km radius you have almost 8 000 hectares 26 fold more than inside 1 km.

*********
Yes well, you have your hives on rape field and it is too hot, dry, wet, windy, cold, what ever. Blooming is over and your hives are almost empty. What went wrong? That is beekeeping.

Nothing. It just happened. Take hives with you and try somewhere else. Summer continues.


.

 

[doorman]

What where you taught at your beginners course about the distance bees will fly to obtain a good supply of pollen or nectar?

I had until recently been under the impression that bees only fly around 1? miles from the hive, ie half the 3 mile rule. The reason being my 'bible', Ted Hooper's Guide to Bees and Honey that I purchased in 1980. On pages 81 & 82 he states.....

"Three miles is twice the normal bee flight distance from a hive, so that from a new position more than 3 miles away they do not fly out and find their old flight lines and go down them to their old home."

Perhaps we should now say, 3 feet or 30 miles.

 

[Poly Hive]

Well Doorman over the years I have stuck to that rule and it is not Hoopers it is cited years before him.

Not once have I had an issue caused by that over three miles move.

Shrug.

 

[Finman]

.
I have much, 40 years experience from pastures where is no other bees or hives. I have seen, how far they visit, how plenty, what they fly and what is return direction when they get full load.

It is a big mistake that scientific researches about flying distances help you get better yields. It is like colours. What colours bees see, you cannot use that knowledge.

First of all I try to find sites where is no other hives. They are plenty on my district. But it may be apiary behind the woods. Who knows?

One day they are 3 km away their hives and next day they are not more than 1 km. If they get nectar near, they stay near hives.

Often there are 1 km corn field between hives and flower busches. They must fly over dry pastures. And that is bad.

One year they bring rape honey. I try to find the rape field but I did not found it. Then by accident after days I notice it. It was 4,5 km distance from hives. It was dry summer and they had not nothing else.

I tell one story from last summer:

It was rape field and to another direction it was wast fireweed area.
Difficult to find a place where to put hives. However I put 2 hives into site where it was to rape field 600 m and 1000 m to fireweed.

It was nice afternoon 16:00 when I inspected what is going on. Nothing. Flying was very week. Same day I have found a rape field, very tight and tall and blooming in very beginning. I went home, took stuffs and put hives on my sedan carry. I left a nuc box to gather foraging bees which are flying.

In the evening I brought that nuc away and there was not much bees., about half a litre.

That fireweed pasture was full of bumblebees. I saw only 2 my honeybees in flowers. Where were my bees? I think that they slept all day at home.

 

[raysa]

The efficiency depends on the strength of the nectar.

It surely depends on a lot more than that. There will be a large range of factors to influence foraging efficiency, and some of them are not constant. My point about evolutionary selection was that environmental changes such as the introduction of new plants may require a further refinement in bee behaviour to regain peak efficiency and take that change into account.

Isn't that how evolution works?

Ray

 

[Finman]

Isn't that how evolution works?

Not it does not.

Honeybee have evolved in Africa and in South Europe. It has been imported to other continents during last 300 years. Bees use those plants what they like and where they can reach with their tongue.

The world has 20 000 more pollinating bee's relatives, birds, butterflies, flyes what ever. Most of plants pollinate with wind.

In fact the world or evolution does not need honeybee. Sad to say.

Honeybee cannot live in hot moist jungles. That is why African bees have imported to South Africa 50 years ago. In Asia Apis cerana is jungle bee and even it cannot live in all places like in Cambodia, parts of Malaysia etc.

In Australian desert honeybee cannot live unless it do not get drinking water to cool its hives.

With ecology and with evolution view we we must look for many other things than distances. Other animals competing is the most important.

Giant honey bee migrate accordind seasons to mountains and to lowlands.

Apis dorsata hives in Thailand

.

.

 

[raysa]

Your post above contains statements which are fine in their own right, Finman, but they do not support your opening comment "No it does not" in relation to my post. We are on entirely different tangents, not opposing ones.

Ray

 

[Finman]

Your post above contains statements which are fine in their own right, Finman, but they do not support your opening comment "No it does not" in relation to my post. We are on entirely different tangents, not opposing ones.

Ray

What ever.
I have studied evolution in university but in beekeeping I need not it
I put hives in car carry and move hives very near good pastures. - It is enough difficult job to me.


nice pastures 100 hectars but poor sandy soil.

Evolution does not help when I seach for over 200 lbs yield per hive.