>
> >Randys chart shows that in big hives as much as 50% may forage, instead
> of the ususal. I don't see that.
>
I'd need to see whether you are referring to an outdated chart, but as I
recall, my most recent chart indicated the theoretical proportion of the
colony population that could devote itself to honey processing (nectar
collection, nectar receiving, comb production, and nectar ripening)--not
just foragers.. A colony requires roughly an equal number of mid age bees
to foragers, in order to receive and transport incoming nectar. And then
more mid age bees to build comb.
>By comparison, colonies at Aberdeen, 16 miles north of Baltimore, MD
started later and tend to increase faster in numbers of foragers, again
peaking mid-day, but the big difference was around 7-7:30 in the evening
when it went dark and large clouds of foragers raced home (big activity
spikes) just before it went dark. Almost always a spike in returning bees
just at dusk - usually within 5-15 minutes as various forager groups
returned to their home hives. No gradual fading out of activity such as we
see in MT.
I observe similar in my location in the Sierra Foothills when following
hive weight at 15-min intervals--a rush of foragers (weight loss spike) out
in the early morning, then typically a lull midday, and a large weight gain
spike at dusk.
>Using forager traps at the hive entrance, Danka et al. (1986) found that
the proportion of European bees foraging remained largely constant as
colony size varied
Keep in mind, that the largest hives in Danka's study would not be
considered to be of serious honey producing strength. They would have
contained roughly 27,000 workers. At that size, a large proportion are
still engaged in broodrearing. I would hesitate to extrapolate his
findings to large (honey-producing) colonies.
--
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com
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