At 10:34 AM 07/01/98 -0600, you wrote: >Reply-to: Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]> >From: Bill Bartlett <[log in to unmask]> About moving bees a short distance. I was required to move a yard about 50 metres down a fence line one year. There were 40 colonies on 10 pallets and it was in August. In the middle of the day I moved them but kept them in the same position relative to each other. The bees were in full flight at the time. When I finished there was a lot of flight over the old site but with in about 30 minutes that stopped - no clusters on the ground and flight in an out of the colinies appeared to return to normal. I have made similar moves on 10 - 20 mtres and found the same results. I suspect it may be different if the bees have significant markers like buildings. > >> At that time I noticed about 50-100 bees from this hive at the old hive >> location looking for the entrnace that was now 15 feet to the South. >> Over 8 weeks and these ladies still remembered! How long will >> "confined" bees remember the previous hive location? > >I took an observation hive to the county fair 10 miles away. They were there >for 6 days. When I brought them back home, I put them in a different >location thinking they had been away long enough. The new location was about >15 feet away. The field bees (I assume) went back to the old location. About >a third of the bees. I scooped them up and dumped them in front of the >observation hive and most, but not all went back into the hive. > >I bet someone out there has more info on this or at least more stories. > >billy bee > Eric Abell Gibbons, Alberta Canada T0A 1N0 Ph/fax (403) 998 3143 [log in to unmask]