Chris wrote:

> Another project DARG members will be undertaking this summer is worker
> marking and one of the things to be recorded is the orientation of the 
> hives in
> which drifting workers appear compared to the home hive.

You might want to check with the NBU first - they did work on drifting 
workers back in the days when they were based at Stratford-upon-Avon.  The 
research was done, I think, just before varroa arrived here and they were 
interested to see how far workers would drift.  As I recall, workers from a 
marked hive turned up in hives all over the district!  David Wilkinson would 
have been around at the time and may well have relevant data.

Stephen Martin said in a recent talk that 30% of the bees in any hive are 
from other hives - and he may well have details of the research that gave 
that figure.

Might save DARG some effort that could be better employed elsewhere.

Best wishes

Peter Edwards
beekeepers at stratford-upon-avon.freeserve.co.uk
www.stratford-upon-avon.freeserve.co.uk/

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