In message <[log in to unmask]>, J.
Waggle <[log in to unmask]> writes
>Intresting!  I'm not doubting you, but has any one
>else on the list observed this behavior?

Many many times.............

Now, this is not an isolated case, but I will give only a single example
but could cite dozens if I check back.

July 2005.
Location: Raebush, nr Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Bee types: Primarily N.European Blacks, some pure, some mongrels, plus 6
hives of straight carnica.

Main forage (surrounded by it)  Erica cineria

55 colonies in standards Polystyrene Langstroth boxes.

Now, when these colonies were checked it was found that the majority
were indeed working the main source well, and were indeed gaining weight
well.

However, not all colonies were doing this. Three colonies were
identified as collecting all white honey (Erica is a rich orange colour
when fresh in this area). Initial thoughts were clover as there is a lot
of it about, but closer checking turned up a flowering field of mustard
as a cover crop at over a mile distant, and that is what they were
working, never leaving it till the day it got cut down and then they
went over on to the Erica and subsequent flowering of the calluna in the
same location.

One colony was collecting urine coloured honey (sorry but it is the best
description of the colour I can come up with), and on tasting it it was
apparent that it was Lime (Linden or Basswood for those where those
names are current). These trees do exist in the area but only
sporadically, and at a considerable distance.

These kind of incidents happen frequently, and were seen a lot round the
Edinburgh area this summer too, when the bees had a choice of clover,
phacelia, spring rapeseed (canola), or limes. Not all colonies in the
groups chose the same source as their primary one, and some just mixed
up everything. Distance was a primary factor there, but not obviously
the be all and end all of it.

Incidentally, the colonies which did best were generally those with the
biggest and blackest bees. I do not operate ANY colonies on cell size
smaller than Pierco, but for sure those on traditional wood and wax,
with a slightly larger cell size (irrelevant in my view in this narrow
case) did the best.

At ALL times I see colonies working a dominant forage source it is
apparent that they do not work solely that source. There are always some
bees carrying a minority pollen. As examples, at rapeseed time in the
spring there is always some dandelion coming in, and at heather time in
late summer there is always some tormentil pollen coming in. Probably
seeking a balance in their diet in some way.

What does any of this show? Nothing more than making absolute statements
that bees will behave to some human concept of an efficiency model is
nonsense. They behave to their own agenda.

Also FWIW. I had some of the Elgon derived stock here to test.

Joe would have loved them.........huge colonies of nice gentle bees.
Foraged early in the morning, fast fliers, zipping in and out almost
without landing, continued till late at night, took their feeding twice
as fast as our own bees. They were small fast bees and very easy to work
with, and the brood patterns were solid, right into the corners of the
frames..........BUT

They had very poor response to dearths, they bred to their capacity for
a large proportion of the summer. The colony power, whilst very large,
was no so large as to be proportional to the black bees alongside them
if you considered the brood area. My conclusion was that they were a
shorter lived bee and needed to breed harder to keep the population
up..........and they gave less honey at season end than the smaller
colonies of black bees, sometimes much less, and some of them were
flirting with starvation because they ate it all, and the dark colonies
round them had a full average harvest on board to be taken.

I gave the strain three years to see how they would fare in a variety of
seasonal patterns but the results were the same, and at the end they got
their marching orders, requeened with proven stock.

So, brood area and foraging patterns are not reliable measures of
efficiency to my mind. There have to be other measures, and if the house
is depending on it, to echo Trevors statement, it is honey in the tank
that matters. Whatever the activity of these bees was about, it
certainly was not efficiency in an economic sense.

First time I have chipped in for a long time, the end of a long season
for us so back in circulation for the winter now.
--
Murray McGregor

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