# How fast can bees fly?



## Hobie (Jun 1, 2006)

Man, I can hardly keep them in sight as they zoom off, which made me wonder if anyone has ever been bored enough to actually clock a bee's speed. I found a website that claimed they fly ~15 mph. 

If you scale that up by size, the equivalent human speed would be incredible.


----------



## blammer (Jul 28, 2006)

faster than you can run!

actually I have heard about 13 mph....


----------



## Jeffzhear (Dec 2, 2006)

"A honeybee can fly about 25 mph (21.7 knots)," according to this web-site:

http://www.honeybee.com/beeinfo.htm

This is definately much faster then I can run!!!!!!!


----------



## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

I read that 25 mph figure I think in "The Hive and the Honey Bee". That's probably top speed unless they have a tail wind  They likely average somewhat less. They fly faster leaving the hive than they do coming in loaded I've noticed.


----------



## Troy (Feb 9, 2006)

Interesting, that has always been my observation too. That they leave teh hive like shotgun blast sometimes, but they always make a slow and deliberate approach.

The funny thing is that i read an article (I think here on beesource) about tracking bees and the auther had done some timing tests. Turns out the opposite is true. They may leave the hive like a shot, but they must take some time to relocate the foraging site and so it takes them longer to return to the bait than it does for them to return to the hive. So they actually go faster on the trip home.


----------



## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

I tried to follow a prime swarm once. I was able to keep up for about a quarter mile, then I thought I would have another heart attack. Bye, bye, bees.


----------



## Brent Bean (Jun 30, 2005)

They can fly faster than one of my dogs, they had to teach her a lesson on dog / bee protocol and chased her back to the house. She was smoking all four paws and she was still getting it. She now stays away from the hives.


----------



## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

Troy said:


> The funny thing is that i read an article (I think here on beesource) about tracking bees and the auther had done some timing tests. Turns out the opposite is true. They may leave the hive like a shot, but they must take some time to relocate the foraging site and so it takes them longer to return to the bait than it does for them to return to the hive. So they actually go faster on the trip home.


So maybe they're sight seeing? They're going to fly slower when loaded down with nectar and/or pollen and you can easily see the difference in speed between departing foragers and returning ones. There may be other explanations for why their return trip takes less time, if this is in fact the case. I'm not sure it is the case. It may only be because they're taking a more direct route home, or it might actually take them a little longer to locate and return to a point-source (a feeder) than it does to find a field or general area where something is blooming. It doesn't necessarily mean they're flying faster when they are clearly flying slower.


----------



## Troy (Feb 9, 2006)

George,

That was my thought as well. They may take longer to return to the bait because they have to search for it. Once they have loaded up they can proceed directly home and so the trip home may take less time due to them moving out on a BEELINE direct to the hive.

They obviously know their way home very accurately, and so can fly there even with a full load very directly.

I always find it interesting to watch them fly in to a group of hives through a hole in the forest canopy. It is amazing to see them drop through there and proceed directly to their own hive very quickly.


----------



## shoefly (Jul 9, 2004)

*Do you loose a larger percent of foragers at high wind speed?*

So if the flying speed of the bees is between 13 - 25mph, what happens when you have a really strong wind above 25mph? Do you loose a higher percent of foragers or have the bees learned how to forage without being blown away?


----------



## alpha6 (May 12, 2008)

*Check out this honeybee*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_ZT1S078Ok&feature=related


----------



## Swobee (May 18, 2007)

Someone here once said: 13 mph unless they're after you, then it's mroe like a hundred.


----------



## Dick Allen (Sep 4, 2004)

The 25 mph figure, I think, is actually 25 km/hr. Mark Winston writes: 

“the average flight speed of a worker bee is about 24 km/hr.” 

“workers with full nectar loads fly at about 6.5 m/sec, wheras unloaded workers may fly at 7.5 m/sec.”

The numbers mentioned in ‘The Hive and the Honey Bee’ are 20.9 to 25.7 km/hr with an average of 24 km/hr.

From ‘Form and Function in the Honey Bee’:

"During flight the visual environment appears to move past the eyes and it is this optical flow that the insect monitors."

bees “try to maintain a constant preferred optical flow rate of images moving from front to back beneath them duiring flight. It has been calculated the preferred optical flow rate is about 3.5 radians/sec for the honey bee.”

I do know when they are stinging they can fly at me faster than the swear words can come out of my mouth. ...


----------



## Robert Hawkins (May 27, 2005)

Apis Mellifera = Honey Bees approx 15 mph
Home Sapiens = Humans approx 25 mph
Unfortunately the bees can keep up the sprint longer than most of us can.

Hawk


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Home Sapiens = Humans approx 25 mph

At a four minute mile (an awesome achievement that I could not even come close to) you'd be going fifteen mph. I think between four and eight mph is more like my speed...


----------



## Dick Allen (Sep 4, 2004)

25 mph for humans seemed a bit fast to me, also, but it sure does show that speed for sprinters when I checked with Google. In Anchorage the speed limit in school zones is 20 mph. So, anyone jogging that fast would probably get a ticket. Not that I'd have to worry, though....


----------



## sierrabees (Jul 7, 2006)

<So if the flying speed of the bees is between 13 - 25mph, what happens when you have a really strong wind above 25mph? Do you loose a higher percent of foragers or have the bees learned how to forage without being blown away?>

From my observation, the bees seem to know enough not to leave the hive when the winds are strong. I suspect that if the wind comes out when they are away from home the just land and wait for favorable conditions.


----------

