At 10:34 AM 07/01/98 -0600, you wrote:
>Reply-to:      Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
>From:          Bill Bartlett <[log in to unmask]>
 
About moving bees a short distance.  I was required to move a yard about 50
metres down a fence line one year.  There were 40 colonies on 10 pallets and
it was in August.  In the middle of the day I moved them but kept them in
the same position relative to each other.  The bees were in full flight at
the time.  When I finished there was a lot of flight over the old site but
with in about 30 minutes that stopped - no clusters on the ground and flight
in an out of the colinies appeared to return to normal.
 
I have made similar moves on 10 - 20 mtres and found the same results.  I
suspect it may be different if the bees have significant markers like buildings.
 
 
>
>> At that time I noticed about 50-100 bees from this hive at the old hive
>> location looking for the entrnace that was now 15 feet to the South.
>> Over 8 weeks and these ladies still remembered!    How long will
>> "confined" bees remember the previous hive location?
>
>I took an observation hive to the county fair 10 miles away.  They were there
>for 6 days.  When I brought them back home, I put them in a different
>location thinking they had been away long enough. The new location was about
>15 feet away.  The field bees (I assume) went back to the old location. About
>a third of the bees. I scooped them up and dumped them in front of the
>observation hive and most, but not all went back into the hive.
>
>I bet someone out there has more info on this or at least more stories.
>
>billy bee
>
Eric Abell
Gibbons, Alberta Canada T0A 1N0
Ph/fax (403) 998 3143
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