2nd try, sorry about the incomplete message. My laptop has a touch pad. I
have to detune touch pads, radiate too much heat from my hands. Merely
waving my hands over the pad sometimes triggers it.
Anyway, Srini does some great research. However, his work on bee distance
clocking (like a speedometer) doesn't necessarily mean that they know that
they are in the 4th hive from the left.
We did that test in the early 80s. 3 colonies on a big, grassy lawn, moved
a short distance forward and to the left. I expected that the returning bees
wouldn't notice any chance. Yet, one hive filled with bees, the other two
colonies had only the queen and the youngest bees. The bees went in to the
hive closest to the original left/right position of the colonies before they
were moved - and these colonies had only been in place on the open lawn for 24
hrs. So, they didn't count, did not know that their hive was the one on the
left, in the middle, or on the right. They keyed on the GPS position, on an
unmarked lawn!
Now, our counters tell us some interesting things about bee forage flights
and position. We see some drift along lines of hives, with the end (downwind)
one tending to pick up bees. We see other colonies, regardless of position,
that always lose bees (percent return is always lower than normal - or the
average for the beeyard). Other colonies always pick up bees (percent return
exceeds 100%). This happens day after day.
Which colonies lose bees, which pick up bees, has little to do with
position. Move these hives to another beeyard, the same return pattern persists.
Finally, colonies facing the sun get up and start working 30 minutes to an
hour earlier than those facing away from the sun. All colonies return home
and suspend work about the same time - so the bees that sleep in don't make up
for the lost time.
Jerry
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