What is the minimum air temperature that bees will normally start foraging (not crapping) flights at?
50 F generally speaking but dark bees will fly at lower temps and a calm sunny day will move that number down as well.
Quote from: Michael Bush on March 16, 2015, 03:13:45 PM
50 F generally speaking but dark bees will fly at lower temps and a calm sunny day will move that number down as well.
Michael is spot on - but why ?
Because honey bees are poikilothermic (cold-blooded), so dark colouring plus a bit of sun enables such bees to forage successfully at lower temperatures ... (except when sunlight is reflected off snow of course, when they are so often fatally deceived)
LJ
Hmmm, pretty weird -I have 2 hives that I formed from splits about a month ago; both seem pretty healthy, lots of bees and untilI stopped feeding them, because they ere backfilling cells quicker than the queens could lay in them, drawing lots of foundation,they've drawn 6 deep frames in that time, the new queens are both ok and there's plenty of new and capped brood etc.
These hives are in my shed, as previously mentioned and I'm opening the doors early in the morning to make sure they're at ambient temperature.
One hive is out and flying in huge numbers by 9 AM when it's still only 12-14 degrees C but the other one doesn't really get going until late morning - lunchtime but in the afternoon, they just go crazy, with far more activity than in the first one. It's got me stumped,I cannot understand why they'd behave so differently.
I requeened both hives with marked queens 24 hours after I split them, one hive was all good, checked after a week and they'd released her and there were lots of new eggs; the other queen was still in the cage, so I let her out and watched her dive down into the brood box. I shut her up for a week and checked again, no sign of the marked queen but there was an empty queen cell but as yet, no new eggs.
Checked again a few days later, thinking I'd maybe have to unite the two hives as it's getting a bit late in the year but found a couple of small patches of fresh eggs, although obviously somewhat behind the hive I'd requeened.
I can't find the is new queen as yet, so I imagine she's not yet developed to full size.
Is it possible that lack of or a less mature queen could account for the difference in foraging behaviour between the 2 hives.
(It's difficult to correlate things with temperature; it's Autumn here but our seasonal changes are subtle and difficult to pick; nothing dramatic like I remember as a kid in the UK when it would seem to be summer one minute and then frosty just 2 weeks later.We don't really have 4 seasons as such - as I understand it, the Tasmanian Aborigines took the view that there were/are up to 7 different seasons, each with its own subtle variations in temperature, wind and rainfall.)
Mine rarely do anything unless it is 50 degrees. I have seen some around the entrance when there was no wind, no clouds and warm sun. Even then it was still upper 40's.