On Sat, 26 Mar 1994 [log in to unmask] wrote:
 
> What is the longest distance that honeybees have been known to
> fly in search of forage?
>
> Here in NZ we often use 3-5 km in describing the area around a
> hive that bees are likely to travel.
>
> I do recall, however, a description of bees found to have flown 8
> miles (?) from their hive in the course of some alfalfa research.
> The researcher was using the Cordovan strain as a marker for some
> reason in the experiment, and found bees from those hives in
> fields at the known distance from the only possible source of the
> bees.
>
> Does anyone know that reference?  Alternatively, what other
> references are there to substantiated long distance foraging?
>
> -------------------------------------
>           Nick Wallingford
>       Bay of Plenty Polytechnic
>  (East coast, N Island, New Zealand)
>      Internet [log in to unmask]
> -------------------------------------
 
I did some research on foraging distances of African honey bees in a tropical
forest in Panama, using their dance comunication . The longest distance I
could measure with precision was 13,669.7 meters and I had some dancers
that were indicating they were flying farther, but after this distance the
curve turns asymptotic so, no precise reading is possible.  There is a
reference to a similar work done with European honey bees:
 
Visscher, P. K. & T. D. Seeley. 1982. Ecology 63 (6): 1790-1801