three miles or one and half miles

[RogueDrone]

Do bees fly 1.5 or 3ml. If 3ml why do we not move then move them 6ml to avoid them coming home ?
Seems to me it is one of those things that ppl seem to get confused!

Or is it me that has got it wrong?

Rogue

 

[dexter's shed]

I'm confused just reading your post,lol

 

[REDWOOD]

Bees can fly further than three miles, the greater the distance the less likely they are to return to the original position and three miles is about it.

 

[Chris B]

If all your bees are flying 3 miles for forage then you have a very poor apiary.
The 3 mile rule of thumb is only a guide, based on the notion that bees do not usually travel beyond 1.5 miles from the hive - however there is no invisible force field at 1.5 miles and Prof. Ratnieks has shown that a small proportion of foragers can travel much further (8 miles or so). Obviously if there's a good forage source on the doorstep then they won't fly very far at all.

 

[midnight sun]

Do bees fly 1.5 or 3ml. If 3ml why do we not move then move them 6ml to avoid them coming home ?
Seems to me it is one of those things that ppl seem to get confused!

Or is it me that has got it wrong?

Rogue

You must also consider that a bee will use 'fuel; to fly. (sugar from nectar or diluted honey). So it will be reluctant to fly too far in case there is no forage to refuel for the trip back, or it must have to carry enough for the return trip to where ever it 'fuels up'. Generally then, the accepted maximum safe 'venture' is around 3 miles. So if you move the hive 3 miles, it is unlikely to come across it's last apiary site as it is on the maximum flight boundary. Hope this makes sense.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

PPL - Pence Per Litre?

 

[For want of a better word]

Shirley... they must be able to fly 6 miles... 3 out... 3 back?

 

[MuswellMetro]

Do bees fly 1.5 or 3ml. If 3ml why do we not move then move them 6ml to avoid them coming home ?
Seems to me it is one of those things that ppl seem to get confused!

Or is it me that has got it wrong?

Rogue

they will fly up to 6 or 8 miles in august to get pollen with certain amino acids in them , well that's according to LASI uni of Sussex, so does that need a 12 or 16
miles in august rule then ;-)

 

[pargyle]

Oddly we had an excellent lecture on Bee Foraging and Navigation at the Association meeting on Friday from Dr Pam Hunter, (Master Beekeeper and doyen of the Central Association of Beekeepers) and she covered this in some detail : -

Bees do regularly fly up to 3 miles where there is a consistent and beneficial source of forage but it is usually much less.

Their ability to navigate is partly as a result of recognition of landmarks ... So, if they are moved more than three miles there is only a percentage of the new three mile radius that will overlap with the previous three mile radius and of course there is much more 'virgin' territory within the radius that does not overlap - so you are working on percentages of opportunity.

The chances of a bee coming across a familiar landmark once a hive has been moved three miles is much reduced and there are less chances of bees then navigating back to the original site - although some foragers may actually return to their original site even when the 3 mile rule is applied, if they come across a familiar landmark and their homeward route reverts to their previous learned memory - but within the context of a colony of say 30,000 bees these are not significant numbers.

You can reduce the distance that you move a hive but, obviously, the chances of bees returning to their original site increases with the reduced distance and the resultant increased overlap of the foraging radius.

It was a fascinating talk generally ...

 

[drstitson]

Interestingly Continental (Italian at least) beekeepers use 3km as their rule of thumb!!!

yet another reason to vote UKIP in May - to stop our British bees from getting confused.

 

[B+.]

beekeepers use 3km as their rule of thumb!!!
.

If you read "Breeding techniques and selection for breeding of the honeybee", Ruttner cites examples where they used the cordovan coloured drones to test the reliability of mating stations. They found that 8km (4 miles) was needed between colonies to prevent mating with undesired drones. Workers will probably fly further.

 

[SixFooter]

My experience is that the 3 mile rule Can be broken. I have an allotment less than 1/2 mile away. I regularly move colonies from home to the allotment and vv without too much of an issue. I usually put a nuc on the stand after I move the hive, but very few bees seem to return to the old site. There are some though, so I wait for it to go dark, close up the nuc and take the bees to the new site the next day.

 

[wessexmario]

It's not just distance.

If there is a lot of forage close around the new site, or in between the new hive location and the old foraging area, then the bees are unlikely to wander into the old foraging area (however near or far). Likewise, if they're moved to an area that is lacking, they're more likely to fly further in search.

The "rule of 3's" is like many other things, people tend to make rules about what they can easily measure (ignoring what is difficult to measure).

 

[Finman]

.
My rule in migrating hives is that if hives are 1 km from rape field, I loose half of my yield.

If distance is over 2 km, yield will be very poor. I prefer to move hives away from that site, because I loose too much after nursing hives whole year for nothing.

I try to consider the worst scenario, and not to hope that it goes best way. Worst enemy is dryness in yield harvest, then cold, and then rain.

When bees carry moist nectar 2 km, and they dry up the nectar, supers will be empty.

 

[mbc]

.
When bees carry moist nectar 2 km, and they dry up the nectar, supers will be empty.

Nice observation, I hadn't thought of it quite like that before.

 

[midnight sun]

Shirley... they must be able to fly 6 miles... 3 out... 3 back?

I was trying to keep it simple.......Didn't work when I read it again this morning. Finman has posted about reduced crop due to using up the forage for return flights as I understand it. That was what I was hinting at in my attempt (quite badly I must admit!)