Social distancing

[steve1958]

I'm sure that I'm not the first person to have this thought.
How much damage do we as Beekeepers cause through placing Hives too close to each other?

Whilst our bees may not spread disease or infection by coughing on each other, they could do so by sharing nectar.
If the colonies are too close together this causes an increased risk of bees drifting between hives.
Foragers enter the hive and pass the nectar to house bees for processing
Any shared infection easily spreads once within the hive.

At present humans are keeping 2 meters apart to reduce the spread of covid.
How far should hives be placed apart to reduce drifting?

 

[Finman]

It has been researched with varroa that 5 000 kilometres is not enough.

 

[viridens]

There seems little point in worrying about disease and infection spread by close hive spacing or drifting when foragers are literally rubbing shoulders with bees from other apiaries and wild species while working on flowers, and drones from anywhere can pop in to your hives for a visit, while yours return home having visited elsewhere. And a new queenie mates with 15 drones or more to start with.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Where did this obsession with 'drifting' come from?
Or is it the usual source?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Don’t forget that drones have free passage into hives snd hop from apiary to apiary let alone hive to hive.

 

[steve1958]

Where did this obsession with 'drifting' come from?
Or is it the usual source?

I wasn't aware I had an obsession.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I wasn't aware I had an obsession.

No not you specifically but it seems to be a general one in a lot of literature and social media opinion.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I wasn't aware I had an obsession.

Not you specifically, as Dani said - just generally, amongst the usual suspects

 

[viridens]

Don’t forget that drones have free passage into hives snd hop from apiary to apiary let alone hive to hive.

I thought I had already said that. I'm glad you agree.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I thought I had already said that. I'm glad you agree.

So good, worth saying twice

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

So good, worth saying twice

I'll second that

 

[Boston Bees]

I'm sure that I'm not the first person to have this thought.
How much damage do we as Beekeepers cause through placing Hives too close to each other?

Whilst our bees may not spread disease or infection by coughing on each other, they could do so by sharing nectar.
If the colonies are too close together this causes an increased risk of bees drifting between hives.
Foragers enter the hive and pass the nectar to house bees for processing
Any shared infection easily spreads once within the hive.

At present humans are keeping 2 meters apart to reduce the spread of covid.
How far should hives be placed apart to reduce drifting?

About 50 metres probably.

Given that this isn't feasible, just accept that drifting is a fact of life and take the necessary steps to mitigate the effects of it.

 

[Boston Bees]

The main risk from one hive to another, in reality, is almost certainly either

a) one colony starving another by robbing its honey or
b) catching varroa while robbing honey from a dying hive

Both of these would happen whether a colony was 1 metre away or 2km away

 

[Antipodes]

Kirsty discusses drifting at 27mins 20 secs and how to mitigate.

 

[steve1958]

As with any question asked of a group of Beekeepers
One question, a dozen answers.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Kirsty discusses drifting at 27mins 20 secs and how to mitigate.

So this young lady admits she didn't know about drifting and looked on the internet and a few sentences later admits also that she is a novice beekeeper.
At least she mitigated her opinion with somebody else's.

 

[drex]

In his book" the lives of bees" Tom Seeley talks of wild colonies being 1 km apart. In a study of two apiaries, one with crowded hives and one with dispersed hives, he found drifting of drones to be about 50% and 3% respectively

 

[Erichalfbee]

In his book" the lives of bees" Tom Seeley talks of wild colonies being 1 km apart. In a study of two apiaries, one with crowded hives and one with dispersed hives, he found drifting of drones to be about 50% and 3% respectively

That’s interesting. That second figure is quite low. Does that allude to the 1km distance?
Another question though is does drifting matter within an apiary.

 

[Antipodes]

So this young lady admits she didn't know about drifting and looked on the internet and a few sentences later admits also that she is a novice beekeeper.
At least she mitigated her opinion with somebody else's.

But is it true?

 

[Antipodes]

So this young lady admits she didn't know about drifting and looked on the internet and a few sentences later admits also that she is a novice beekeeper.
At least she mitigated her opinion with somebody else's.

And not just any old somebody else...
https://farmerscientistnetwork.co.uk/team_member/mike-brown/