Bee Math Question

[GSF]

I've looked at this a couple of times (more like a drive by than a study). I'm trying to figure out the +number. What doe it mean? Would that refer to a more or less suggestion?


Caste   Hatch    Cap          Emerge   
Queen   3½ days  8 days +-1   16 days +-1  Laying        28 days +-5
Worker  3½ days  9 days +-1   20 days +-1  Foraging      42 days +-7
Drone   3½ days 10 days +-1   24 days +-1  Flying to DCA 38 days +-5

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm

[asprince]

The number of days plus or minus the given number of days.

Steve 

[hjon71]

I wondered the same and found somewhere(memory lacking)

The +1 works like this:
Beeks don't watch inside the hive 24hrs/day. So whether that larva gets capped right after you close the hive or just before you open to inspect the next day, what happens  in between is unknown. So because there is that period(24hrs) of not knowing, you get +1.

Hope that helps. I really should have saved a link. Sounded good to me. I'm still pretty green myself :-)

[iddee]

IE. A queen may emerge on the 15th day, the 16th day, or even the 17th day, depending on the temperature and other things.
It is not an exact time for individuals.

[GSF]

Thanks all.

[L Daxon]

We tend to talk in absolutes but the time between the laying of the egg and the emergence of the adult bee can vary, as iddee said, temperature being one variable.  Most of the educational material says 21 days for a worker, but I recently saw a study where the average time from egg to adult was 19.4 days or there a bouts.  I think we are frequently given the outlying number, i.e. 21 days to make sure we allow enough time, especially for things like queen emergence. But baby bees come out when they are good and ready, just like human babies.  Some come early and some come later.