Allen:
I think we know that bees reduce foraging when the house bees become less 
interested in receiving incoming nectar for whatever reason.  Full comb in the 
occupied region is definitely one of them.  

Me:
This is acceptable. If there isn't space to put the nectar, the process comes to a halt. I am assuming that the hive is given adequate space. There is a distinct difference in the behavior of bees in managed hives than in the wild. WHen a hive becomes full, and there is no place to put the nectar, the foragers cannot keep foraging. That is not what I am discussing, since that is just a physical problem involving no decisions and not flowing from a particular behavior.

Allen:
As foraging drops off in fall, even with 
good forage or feed nearby, we see much less flight and for lesser distances.  If our 
hives are hungry, we know that by the comparatively greater amount of flight from
those hives.

Me:
This is the part I take issue with. This presupposes that a colony has a way of knowing how much honey they have, and if they are satisfied they have enough, they forage closer to home, or just hang out, or whatever. We are all intelligent folks here, how can the colony "know" how much honey it has, and how can it use this information to regulate foraging?

By the way, where is Joe Waggle on this? He started it. I have some questions for him:

Joe:
I am seeking  reference source which
would reveal the earliest date
it was scientifically proven or
first known that a colony of bees 
-well fortified with honey, would begin 
to abandon foraging great distances,
in favor of foraging closer to home. 

Me:
You claim that it is "scientifically proven". WHere, and by whom? 

See, this is not referring to fall. If it's fall we are talking about, they may be flying shorter distances because of cooler temperatures. Although, around here, typically the largest honey crops are gotten in fall, often when the bees have plenty of honey already. In fact, if the hives are not correctly supered, the brood nest gets plugged and the colony cannot raise young bees for winter. 

Joe:
Here, I may compare this with
evidence showing that bee
hunters, -a hundred years ago
were aware of this fact, and 
adjusted their bee hunting 
strategies accordingly.

Me:
Again, where is this idea coming from? One might observe that bees forage here, -- or there, -- but to attribute to some internal state of the hive, to some quantification of how much honey they have in store, that seems a bit of stretch. I haven't read this anywhere. 

PLB

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm