Question

[Heather]

OK, general husbandry exam.. when is drifting beneficial to bees?.. I considered.. Never, as possible disease spread. but not correct. Opinions please.

 

[Millet]

OK, general husbandry exam.. when is drifting beneficial to bees?.. I considered.. Never, as possible disease spread. but not correct. Opinions please.

Drones drifting to spread there prodigy maybe ? .

 

[Codford]

Never beneficial - bees shouldn't drive...

 

[beesbeesbees]

Is it to rehome bees from a dismantled hive for example when a laying worker hive is dismantled

 

[Heather]

No, they inferred that an apiary with 6+ hives fairly near, there could be drifting and could I think of a reason where it could be beneficial. I said No, but their response of silence seemed to want me to say a good reason..Stumped..

 

[wightbees]

My main site has large number hives on it and I have noticed which colonies have drifting problems but the colones next door are very strong. But the colones that drift are noticeable weaker. I could just take brood out to balance this but have decided these Queens aren't ideal.

 

[Paul in Poole]

I wonder if the answer is when you move all the hives to a new location but leave one hive to collect any bees that are left behind.

 

[mjt68]

Is it plumping production colonies by moving others around?

 

[pargyle]

The question stated 'beneficial to the bees ?' Not beneficial to the beekeeper ? I can't see a situation whereby drifting WOULD be beneficial to the bees - there would always be a downside to this situation.

For the beekeeper - Yes, balancing colony numbers after AS as per Roger Patterson. Having your hives at the end of a long line if you go to the heather - the end hive in the row allegedly gets a bigger crop as a result of drifting.

Typical BBKA ... silly question really - my answer would have been the same as your's Heather !

 

[Heather]

That makes sense to balance productivity, Pargyle.. thanks.. but not healthy behaviour to be encourages me thinks.
Let you know in 6 weeks... at least my nights are more tranquil... less lying there thinking bee disease, honey chemistry, Bailey on weak colony etc...

 

[region2]

Stick a weak colony downwind and it will benefit from displaced returning foragers to boost both the larder and the population.

 

[Heather]

and risk efb...think you know my thoughts there.

 

[region2]

Probably the answer they were after tho' (not the EFB thing)...

And, in my experience, EFB only occurs in weak colonies so this might be beneficial there too.

 

[B+.]

Typical BBKA ... silly question really - my answer would have been the same as your's Heather !

Absolutely right.
However, bees drift to the nearest/easiest colony in a line so they can unload and go back for more nectar. Perhaps, this is what they meant: i.e. maximising the number of trips to a nearby nectar source?

 

[bjosephd]

Maybe from an evolutionary perspective it allows bees from a destroyed hive (by a bear or wotnot) to beg entrance to neighbouring colonies so their existence isn't wasted.

So maybe drifting in a beekeeping sense is just a side affect of bees having evolved to accept drifters, but in nature colonies are rarely so very close to each other.

 

[masterBK]

I think under the stress of the exam you may have possibly misheard or misinterpreted the question

If you refer to the syllabus you find it says
"The methods used to minimise drifting and circumstances when diverting bees to another colony can be an advantage."

Ie Using drifting being used as part of management for the benefit of the beekeeper in some way eg more honey [production

For example I have 30 colonies but only take some (the strong ones) to the moors for the heather, If you keep your hives in pairs and move one away to another part of the apiary a few days before the trek to the moors the the remaining one (predestined for the heather) picks up the drifting foragers boosting honey production.

Another example would be the Heddon modification to the Pagden artifical swarm when you switch the queenless portion to the other side of the queen right hive 6 or 7 days after carrying out the AS to shunt the foragers into the queenright hive to boost the foraging force of the that hive and reduce the chance of casts in the queenless portion containing queen cells.

Shaking out a laying worker colony is another example so the the flying bees return to the original site and finding no hive there enter the adjacent hives. Another example might be the use of the "doors" in snelgrove board or even the use of the slide in the Cloake board.

Obviously if you had disease in the apiary you obviously wouldn't do this.

 

[Tom Bick]

and risk efb...think you know my thoughts there.

Even though we may never see it but drifting within an apiary will be going on to some extent most of the time.

It may flow backwards and forwards with no noticeable effects on a single colony or if in the case of hives all in a straight line and a regular wind blowing left to right one hive at the end depleted of bees with the opposite one at the other full of bees and extra supers.

Drones will also drift at will from hive to hive.

I agree we should reduce drifting to help prevent the spread if disease but in reality very difficult to stop especially when we are keeping bees in an unnatural concentration of colonies.

Hope the exam went well and a good pass rate. Thinking about it myself.

 

[pargyle]

That makes sense to balance productivity, Pargyle.. thanks.. but not healthy behaviour to be encourages me thinks.
Let you know in 6 weeks... at least my nights are more tranquil... less lying there thinking bee disease, honey chemistry, Bailey on weak colony etc...

Well done whatever the result Heather ... it's enough of a challenge without them thinking up silly questions ...

I'm still very much with you - no right minded beekeeper would actively encourage drifting - it would rarely, if ever, happen with worker bees in feral colonies so why should we consider it as beneficial to the bees in our managed colonies ?

 

[Swarm]

Depends what you view as drifting, in some of the scenarios described by masterBK it can be beneficial. I'm doing something similar but I suppose it could be considered 'bleeding' foragers rather than drifting.

 

[masterBK]

Another advantageous example of diverting bees to another colony
If you have one colony being robbed by another colony you can simply switch their hive positions and the robbing usually stops