On Mon, 30 Aug 1993, Rick Hough wrote: > Date 8/30/93 > Subject RE>flight chambers > >From Rick Hough > To Jerry Bromenshenk, Discussion of Bee Biology > > Reply to: RE>flight chambers > Jerry Bromenshenk writes (regarding flight chambers): > > >So far, we have come up with the following: > > > >1. Eliminate corners > >2. Use diffuse, non-directional light > >3. Pick up the mini-nucs during the day to get rid of old foragers > >4. May be able to train bees to fly to feeding station > > Sorry Jerry, I don't have any details on chamber design - but I do have > a few comments (keep in mind I am not an academic, but a beekeeper > w/only a couple years of experience): > > 1) Eliminating corners seems like an easy way out - does anyone know > why the bees get "stuck" in the corners?? Are they simply trying to > fly "home" to the nuc location they originally oriented to?? Bees in greenhouses and cages go to the light and get stuck on the barrier (i.e., the corners) > > 2) Using diffuse lighting - it seems to me that this would confuse the > bees - I was under the impression that the bees use the sun as a > navigational aid (primarily the UV components, I think). Without a > substitute sun, I think it would be *very* difficult for the bees to > communicate the location of a feeding station. > Yes, but at short distances they home on the landmarks. Again, the problem is bees trying to get to the light. > 3) Pick up the nucs during the day to get rid of old foragers - this works, > but at the penalty of losing all those hard-working foragers. If you > move the nuc more than 3 miles (in a single direction - not 1.5 miles out, > and then 1.5 miles back to the same location!) the bees will "reorient" to > the new location. This way, you can move the hive at night (with nearly > all the bees), and the old foragers can still be a useful. > A beekeeper who pollinates strawberries in greenhouses does this. The intent is loss of the field force. They learned to fly in a world with no boundaries. They don't re-learn very easily. Naive bees may not have the same problem. > 4) Training bees to fly to a feeding station - good luck - I'm not sure this > is training in the traditional sense, but if the bees can navigate, and they > find the feeding station and are able to return home to tell the rest of > the colony where the feeding station is, you can rest assured that the > other bees will come visit the feeding station, especially if that is the > only sustinance available!!! > In this case the rest of the world are the bees in the mini-nuc. We want to encourage their flight in the chambers. > Again, please take my comments in the light intended - I'm just someone > who has been keeping bees a couple of years, and has listen to the > traffic on BEE-L for a while - I am not by any stretch of the imagination > a scholar or researcher. > > Good luck with your research - I would be interested to hear about your > findings - maybe you could post a summary to BEE-L sometime?? > > Rick Hough > [log in to unmask], a hobby beekeeper from Hamilton, MA (NE of Boston). Beekeepers often are my best source of information - e.g., the suggestion of moving bees in the day. Thanks for the prompt response. Jerry