Weight them. Most morphometric parameters such as length are correlated to body mass

Best regards



Coby van Dooremalen
Bijen@wur
Plant Research International
Wageningen UR
Droevendaalsesteeg 1
6706 PB Wageningen
www.wageningenur.nl/bijen/

________________________________________
From: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of [log in to unmask] [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 23 December 2014 19:26
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [BEE-L] MEASURING BEES

Yesterday my apprentice, Sarah, told me that she thought the bees are
now smaller than they were.  I took a look at the fliers and they
seemed normal to me, but her eyes are much younger than mine and, this
year, she has spent more time at the hives than I have.

As we don't use foundation, I suppose that it's possible that the bees
currently active were reared nearer the centre of the brood comb where
the cell size is smaller, but it would be good to check.  How does one
measure bees?  What bits? Can it be done while they're still alive as I
don't want to kill bees just to satisfy idle curiosity? What dimensions
of the various bits are considered normal?

Chris

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