In a message dated 6/20/2012 10:33:04 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
. A video ...showing Australian
bees flying an hour earlier than U.S. bees and an hour later at night in
almonds. The Australian bees flying in rain.
Bob
Our counters indicate that two different things may be at play here - and
it may not be Aussie bees.
1) With any group of colonies (we had 50 with counters) SOME of the
colonies respond differently to weather. Whereas most will stop foraging for the
day with a later afternoon rain, some go back to work while its still
misting rain. Most give themselves plenty of time to get home at night (the
foraging gradually slows down in late afternoon, evening. But SOME race
home as a group just before DARK - waves of bees coming in at the last minute.
2) When we get bees from CA in the spring, our overwintered bees from MT
work at considerably lower temperatures, start to forage earlier in the day,
and forage later into the afternoon and evening, then the bees from CA.
After about two weeks, all is the same.
In #1, we suspect a genetic difference. The foraging behaviors are
consistent over weeks, months. The outlier colonies show the same behavior - fly
in light rain, go to work immediately, work later, etc. To be clear, each
outlier colony tends to show a SPECIFIC variant behavior, such as resuming
work immediately after heavy rain - but that doesn't mean this same colony
will necessarily work of colder termperatures, or forager for more hours.
When we did this work, I often said that queen breeders needed counters.
If I was a Seattle beekeeper, I'd probably want a bee that kept going
except in pouring rain. But in our semi-arid prairies, where the infrequent
rains often trigger a bloom, waiting to go back to work until the next day may
be a good thing.
In #2, it seems that the bees need to adjust their 'expectations' if such a
behavior exists in bees. The overwintered MT bees work at cold temps
because they have to to get things going, support brood, etc. in our cold
springs. If they wait for hot temps, they're going to starve. The bees from
CA have already had warm to hot weather. They appear to be 'waiting' for
the sun to come out, thing warm up, before foraging. After a few days to a
couple of weeks, they seem to get the point - its NOT GOING to get hot.
Jerry
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