Rodney Farrar asked:

>Any information on how far a swarm will go from its parent hive?

   Schmidt and Thoenes studied that problem.  One can find some of their
results in the December 1990 issue of the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, pages
811-812.

   With respect to the question asked, they wrote (in part): "...European
swarms typically travel about 250 to 500m from the parent colony, with
shorter distances (e.g., 100m) and longer distances (e.g., 1000m being
relatively less common."

   They furnished me with their original results, which we worked into a
graph.  One can view that graph as Figure 6 in Item #15 on the following
web site:

www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm

   Although the scale shown in that figure is in logarithms, 2.0 means 100m
and 3.0 means 1000m (or yards, close enough), values that corresponded with
those in the above quotation.

                                                        Adrian


Adrian M. Wenner                    (805) 963-8508 (home phone)
967 Garcia Road                     (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106  [http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm]

*****************************************************
*
*    "We not only believe what we see:
*  to some extent we see what we believe."
*
*                           Richard Gregory (1970)
*
*****************************************************