> The following is edited heavily and follows discussions of drone drift: > FWIW - At the Alberta Beekeepers Association convention, a speaker mentioned > the following anecdote, which I repeat without attribution as just that: > > As a test, a US beekeeper shook some bulk bees from one of his yards and then > sprinkled flour on them. He then drove through another county where he > had bees and threw some of them off the truck here and there along the > highway. > > A survey shortly thereafter revealed bees with flour on them at hives as far > away as one and one half miles from the release points!!!! > > This might have some implications regarding loads of supers on the way to beeyards. > Allen Dick > > Allen, > Some years ago, One of my undergraduate students, Quinn Carver, performed just such an experiment. Working with a Montana migratory beekeeper, he shook packages from colonies just delivered from California. He marked thousands of bees with blue paint. He then drove down the highway sprinkling bees out of his pickup truck. Along the highway were beeyards that had been in place for more than a month. As I remember, he also started about 1 1/2 miles from the nearest apiary. Having exhausted his "painted packages", he then went to a beeyard about 1000 meters from the highway. He sat down to eat his lunch, expecting to put in a very boring day. However, before he had even settled in, a blue bee flew by, landed on a hive entrance, and walked in the door. Soon other painted bees showed up. Before the end of the day, not only had he seen painted bees arriving at the hives, he also had a photograph of two blue bees near the queen on a brood frame!! Quinn's experiment was not very sophisticated, but it certainly indicates that bees lost off of trucks don't: 1) sit in the barrow pit and wait to die, or 2) wander aimlessly. Since all of the bees cames from the same bee operation, we can't rule out the possability that the marked bees weren't to some degree related to the queens in the hives that they entered. However, this was a several thousand colony operation using queens from various suppliers and the target apiary had been in place for some time prior to the arrival of the colonies from which the packages were made up. Quinn submitted a paper to ABJ, but they decided it was too long. Since it was only two typewritten pages, that surprised me. I encouraged him to publish his findings as a short note or even a letter to the editor, but I don't think he ever got around to it. This little test was conducted after the Montana beekeepers debated and defeated a resolution that advocated using nets on loads of bees being transported through our state. Although not definitive, Quinn's test confirms the anecdotal report of a beekeeper dusting bees and finding them at hives. Finding them in the hives beside the queen is worrisome. It certainly suggests that mites could be distributed in this manner. Oh, yes, Quinn was working with mostly worker bees - not drones. In our ongoing research, we have seen worker bees infested with either tracheal mites or varroa mites or both. Personally, I'd recommend netting those loads of bees. Cheers Jerry J. Bromenshenk The University of Montana [log in to unmask] 406-243-5648