Tom,
I ain't no bee expert but I do know that bees navigate by visual
cues. When a bee leaves the hive for the first time it flies backwards
and takes mental "snapshots" of the hive and the surrounding area. It is
easy to confuse bees by moving rocks and other objects near the hive.
And if you move the hive six feet the bees will congregate around the old spot
and may not be able to find the new location. I think I read once that
bee vision is poor, not because the compound eye is deficient, but because the
bee brain is so small that it lacks the processing power to handle all the
visual input.
But it is possible that the bee continues to take mental snapshots as it
ventures farther and farther from the hive. If you hand carried a bee to
a location it had never been before, I would think it would be likely that the
bee wouldn't know where the hell it was.
On a related subject, my bees are very sensitive to sounds.
They get angry when I mow near the hive with the little high pitched lawn
mower but they don't seem to mind the deeper sound of the tractor with its big
mower. Needless to say the trees in that section of the orchard don't
get mowed as well as elsewhere.
Phil Norris
East Blue Hill, Maine
Z4
Hi,
Dumb question...
How do bees
navigate away from the hive, and then return to
it?
I know that
they do a dance in the hive which tells other
bees where nectar can be
found, which I believe has to do
with the position of the sun in the
sky.
But would the bees you hand carried to the plants be
"lost"
and not know the way back to the hive?
Since hives are
moved around to pollinate crops, the bees
must have some means of
remembering where the hive is on a
daily basis.
Hopefully, a bee
expert will be able to reveal how dumb this
question
is.
Regards,
Tom
"Raby, Brian {20-4~Indianapolis}"
wrote:
> Don,We keep about 5 hives ourselves (my wife being
the
> bee keeper), and she suggested that she collect some
bees
> from the hive and place them on the strawberry plants
to
> sort of wake them up to the fact that there is a nectar
>
source nearby. Did you ever try to do that with your
>
bees, kind of hand hold them over to a food source?
> Anyway,
either the strawberries are self-fertile or other
> flying objects are
doing the pollinating, but I'm going to
> have a full crop this
year.Brian
>
> -----Original
Message-----
> From: Don
Yellman
>
[mailto:dyellman@earthlink.net]
> Sent:
Thursday, May 10, 2001 12:58 PM
> To:
nafex@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [nafex]
Bee Habits
>
>
Brian:
> I
have kept bees for over 20 years, and
>
have learned this about
> them: each bee
only works one type of flower at
> a
time. Your bee kept
> returning to
the dandelion because she had been
>
assigned to
dandelions.
>
That said, my bees have never been too
>
gung-ho for strawberries.
> What
pollination takes place on
strawberries
> seems to be done
by
> smaller, feral insects. They
must not have much
> nectar or
other
> attraction for classic
bees. Even so, I have
> never
noticed that
> strawberries fail to set
due to lack of
> pollination, so they
may be, to
> some extent, self-fertile,
or they benefit from
> some air
pollination.
>
> Rgds, Don
Yellman, Great Falls,
VA
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo!
Groups is subject to the
> Yahoo! Terms
of
Service.
>
>
>
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>
>
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms
> of
Service.
--
Thomas Olenio
Ontario, Canada
Hardiness Zone
6a
Hi,
Dumb question...
How do bees navigate away from the hive, and
then return to it?
I know that they do a dance in the hive which
tells other bees where nectar can be found, which I believe has to do with
the position of the sun in the sky.
But would the bees you hand carried to the
plants be "lost" and not know the way back to the hive?
Since hives are moved around to pollinate
crops, the bees must have some means of remembering where the hive is on a
daily basis.
Hopefully, a bee expert will be able to reveal
how dumb this question is.
Regards,
Tom
"Raby, Brian {20-4~Indianapolis}" wrote:
Don,We keep about 5 hives ourselves (my wife being the bee
keeper), and she suggested that she collect some bees from the hive and
place them on the strawberry plants to sort of wake them up to the fact
that there is a nectar source nearby. Did you ever try to do that
with your bees, kind of hand hold them over to a food source?
Anyway, either the strawberries are self-fertile or other flying objects
are doing the pollinating, but I'm going to have a full crop this
year.Brian
-----Original
Message-----
From:
Don Yellman [mailto:dyellman@earthlink.net]
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 12:58 PM
To:
nafex@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [nafex] Bee Habits
Brian:
I have kept
bees for over 20 years, and have learned this about
them:
each bee only works one type of flower at a time. Your bee
kept
returning to the dandelion because she had been
assigned to dandelions.
That said, my
bees have never been too gung-ho for strawberries.
What
pollination takes place on strawberries seems to be done
by
smaller, feral insects. They must not have much
nectar or other
attraction for classic bees. Even so,
I have never noticed that
strawberries fail to set due to
lack of pollination, so they may be, to
some extent,
self-fertile, or they benefit from some air
pollination.
Rgds, Don Yellman, Great Falls,
VA
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
Service.
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is
subject to the Yahoo!
Terms of Service.
--
Thomas Olenio
Ontario,
Canada
Hardiness Zone 6a
Your
use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.