Honey bee forage zone - 3km view per your apiary

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ibanez

New Bee
Joined
Feb 4, 2009
Messages
1
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0
Location
Cape Town, South Africa
Hive Type
Langstroth
Number of Hives
20
I've added a utility to my website that plots a 3km honey bee forage
zone around an apiary site.

Interesting to see what your honey bees are potentially using for
foraging.

It's free, based on google maps; you are more than welcome to add your
apiary sites to try it out.

Dean
 
I couldn't find it... typed in your web address and got your website....
 
mmm you have added yours and now everyone knows where to find it.
 
Looks like a free Advert to me.
Anyone wants to bye local honey can look at the map.
And find me.:)

Why was the link removed???
 
The link was in a post that the member who posted it deleted.
Not sure why,the deletion nothing to do with me.
 
i am probably wrong but a lot of scams do come from Cape Town, South Africa,

i hope you haven't picked up any spy ware etc.

if i am wrong ibanez i do apologise

TC
 
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This piece of information that can bee obtained only shows an outward distance of 3 Km from the position of your hives.

Gone is the day of 3 Miles or 3 inches.:banghead:

The average distance now being recorded is 6Km so lets get up to date and forget the rule of 3 regrading foraging.

Regards;
 
As long as the map is not used for bee rustling!
 
The rule of three has nothing to do with the distance foragers actually work.

It is to do with moving the hives FAR enough to ensure that said foragers do not accidentally find the old flight paths and return to where the colony/s were.

Just a wee heads up on bee behaviour here. Experiments in the Gobi desert, or Arizona as to how far bees will fly for water or nectar have precious little relevance to the UK.

ALWAYS look at the location of research and cut the cloth of the information to suit. ;)

PH
 
Hi Poly Hive

Experiments in the Gobi desert, or Arizona as to how far bees will fly for water or nectar have precious little relevance to the UK.

The distances I am refering to have nothing to do with any experiments carried out in the Gobi deaert or in Arizona.

The experiments were carried out by Prof. T. D. Seeley in his book The Wisdom of the Hive The physiology of Honey Bee colonies, where distance have been recored using various routes with obstacles placed in the way to see how the bees delt with them.

Also mentioned in the book by M. Winston the The Biology of the Honey Bee, he states that foraging distance is now recognised as approx 6Km
from the hive.


And I entirerly agree with your statment below.

ALWAYS look at the location of research and cut the cloth of the information to suit

Regards;
 
I note with interest that Prof Seeley is published by Harvard Uni Press which leads me in the line of thinking that the gent is American, and that possibly his experiments took place there?

That does not of course negate the experiments but it possibly has an influence on the accuracy of the information with regards to here.

I am not boasting here but for a time I had a job where on night shift I could sit and read, and having thirty years supply of ABJ and Gleanings (as it was then) I read. And from my not inconsiderable consumption of the American bee press I learnt that things over the pond are not at all the same as here.

That line of thought was bolstered not inconsiderably by books by Taber Raylor and Killon. In fact on opening Killon's book the first picture shows a brood box with no less than 11 supers on it. Then there is an apiary view of all double BB Langstroths with 6 supers on , apparently ALL working comb honey.

Bee ware the siren song from abroad one and all. Things ARE different there.

And we poor mortals are here..... in the cold and rain. ;)

PH
 
The average distance now being recorded is 6Km so lets get up to date and forget the rule of 3 regrading foraging.

;

It is a harmful mistake to beekeepers if he believes that bees can forage honey yield from long distances.

There are many researches in Internet which tell that if fields do not have food enough, bee fly long distances and it is several kilometres.

But when you as beekeeper has a good honey flow, the average distance is under 1 km. If pastures are poor, same hives may search food on radius 6 km. (English research)

What does it mean?

When you have a hive site and you are going to get good yield, good flower souces must be under 1 km radius.

My experience is that if the distance to rape field is over 1 km, 50% of yield will be missing compared to hives which are just moved on rape field.

If weather is moist (small rains) and the distance is over 2 km, bees will not get surpluss honey in their supers. Hives on rape field gathered moist honey and instead of one week they needed 3 weeks to get hive full of capped honey.

**********

HIVE NUMBER PER SITE

If honey flow is on low level, bees must gather honey from larger area. You understand that if there are more hives, there are less nectar per forager and bees must work longer to get stomach full.
 
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Most of the bee books, going back years, say "bee will forage up to 3 miles".
Now we say 3 km.
1 mile = 1.609344 kilometres.
Sound to me the average distances bees will forage is 3 km.
But they will go up to 4.6 km.
And may be more if no food around.
 

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