# Do bees remember you?



## Michael Pawelek (Jun 4, 2012)

Yes, My Aunt Bee used to remember me on my birthday and Christmas every years with a card and some cash !


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

They seem to remember me for about a day after an inspection. I wouldn't inspect then hold a bbq near the hives, that is for sure. But maybe a week later, no problem


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## robo mantis (Aug 8, 2011)

hahaha mine remember for 4 days or so. 1 week later is usually safe. Maybe mine just have good memory hahaha!


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

Three days. After that, mine can't remember a thing.

Wayne


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## Hokie Bee Daddy (Apr 1, 2011)

I read a study one time where bees were fed sugar water with a picture of someone's face behind the dish. Researchers did this daily for a week or two. They then removed the sugar water and the bees flew to the face picture. It could be moved several yards in different directions and the bees would still go to that picture. The researchers concluded that bees could recognize a beekeepers face and associate that face with food. Presumably they could also associate that face with other, not so good things as well.


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

waynesgarden said:


> Three days. After that, mine can't remember a thing


I will keep that in mind. I have so MUCH that needs done outside right now. Had to leave the lot alone after today's inspection, I was being head-butted. (beats being stung)


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

AUXCOM;846410...do they rember you?[/QUOTE said:


> Not after they sting me!


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## chevydmax04 (May 11, 2009)

I know they remember by bee suit! They have been very testy the last few days as I have been removing honey supers, now I just go down there and if I have white on they will come out and meet me if I am getting anywhere close to the hives! I took 4 stings in the last 2 days!


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

I've had to leave my suit on the front porch so the bees could "have their way with it" and I could keep them out of my house. After a couple of hours the suit and gloves get boring and they go away.


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## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

Gypsi said:


> I've had to leave my suit on the front porch so the bees could "have their way with it" and I could keep them out of my house. After a couple of hours the suit and gloves get boring and they go away.


 On average they do remember my inspection (associated with me) for 3-4-7 days - 3 bees exactly patrolled my backdoor effectively preventing my usual morning tea in the garden routine. A few weeks ago, one bee unexpectedly remembered (sclerosis?) the previous week inspection - BBQ with my daughters had been cancelled since I do not want to take any chance (my daughters already disapproving regarding bees). Bees somehow recognized me (smell, visual?). We have large screened window just next to the backdoor - if I stand next to the opened window - 3 patrol-girls immediately come and start zig-zaging in front of my face. It is hilarious to be locked in the house by 3 tiny creatures! My wife always had a good time watching me and cat (she apparently recognized patrolling-girls) running in the house with escort of 3 bees. Bees do not enter the house but payroll the backdoor. I noticed that this patrolling behavior depends from how "deep" inspection was. Also, I think, I learned how to do inspection more "properly" (to bees) - in recent time, I had only one patrolling incident when I disassembled the whole hive. For now, as long as I do not get deep into the nest, girls are fine, so I am. Interestingly, I got more stung from random accidents than from "patrolling" - from time to time, some crazy girl decided to be a kamikaze and just stung without any notification. I have stung every few weeks. Sergey


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## AUXCOM (Sep 1, 2012)

Well....It's day 2 and last night they were all inside as we had a short rain. I was able to slowly pry out 4 of the 5 stables holding down the mesh in front of the door before they became concerned. So I beat a hasty retreat back inside.

They still have a small space in the back corner and the front as the deeps shifted when being set into place on Wed. afternoon....I think I will just let this stay that way for a bit. Maybe I have started a new trend?

Today I walked out to visit them within 5 feet and none of the girls seemed to be concerned....whew.

Be dammed if old dog can't just go up to them and give a nice sniff and lick his chops smelling the honey!

Gonna let them bee for a few more days before I smoke em and place another deep on top for the winter.

Bobby


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

Sergey,

You wouldn't happen to have cordovan bees would you? Because my swarm-caught cordovans would guard my front door. One stung me on the ear as I walked out it when I hadn't really done anything to their hive, and that is when the great cordovan move and requeen project began.

I don't have a big window onto that porch so they are very effective "stalker bees". With my new VSH queen and new brood, it appears that stalking stops at the fence to the apiary, thank goodness.


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## Slow Modem (Oct 6, 2011)

Nah, bees don't remember for more than a day.



oh wait, that's me that can't remember. nevermind.


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## AUXCOM (Sep 1, 2012)

Hey Sergey,

All I know it is a registered Italian hive/queen inspected in the last month or so.

They are not aggressive at all after 2 days of being left alone and are not bothered by me standing nect to the hive in shorts and T-shirt, and my dog can walk right up to them and sniff away and not get bothered either.

Bobby


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## Daniel Y (Sep 12, 2011)

I know for a fact my bees will remember me for at least three days. there length of memory seems to be directly related to how pissed I got them.


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

I have noticed this too. Filling feed jars doesn't create lasting memory. Dropping a brood frame over the hive, 3 days. Bad enough that I opened the nest.


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## chevydmax04 (May 11, 2009)

Daniel Y said:


> I know for a fact my bees will remember me for at least three days. there length of memory seems to be directly related to how pissed I got them.


I hear you Dan! I pissed mine off royally the other day and I swear they followed back to the house and are waiting for me when I go out!


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## Splatt (Jul 11, 2012)

I figure my bees remember me as "that idiot in the white suit"


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## Splatt (Jul 11, 2012)

chevydmax04 said:


> I hear you Dan! I pissed mine off royally the other day and I swear they followed back to the house and are waiting for me when I go out!


I've had a guard follow me back to the house. An hour later I went to the back door, and saw her sitting there, waiting. As soon as I stepped out she was buzzing around my head.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Were you wearing your white suit?
What if someone else had stepped out the back door? Do you expect different behavior on the bees part?
What if you had gone inside, taken a shower, washing your hair, putting on clean clothes and a hat and stepping outside the back door, do you think the bee would fly by you looking for someone else?


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

chevydmax04 said:


> I hear you Dan! I pissed mine off royally the other day and I swear they followed back to the house and are waiting for me when I go out!


For how long? I have 60 hives across the road from my house. I can see them from here. They don't follow me back to the house after working them. I walk out amongst them daily and get no inspection from them. I even peak under a lid or two every so often just to see how many bees are in the upper super or if there is any sign of honey and may get stung for my intrusion, but they don't come out at me the next time I walk by.

So, whereas there may be something to what y'all are writing considering your observations, I just don't experience or observe the same things.

there, their, they're


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## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

Gypsi said:


> Sergey, You wouldn't happen to have cordovan bees would you?


 Gypsi
The origin of my bees is unknown. They are survivor/feral(?). When I just started last October, I was very concern regarding bees aggressive behavior since we are in the middle of city. All experienced beekeepers immediately suggested to requeen... only one smart person (Rusty from honeybeesuite) suggested to wait and see what happens. So, right now I am quite comfortable with my bees and very happy that I did not requeen. Bees are completely treatment-free and doing very well based on size of colony and amount of honey they produced. The hives (two permitted) are withing 20 feet from my backdoor and my tea-place is just behind another hive, 5 feet away. So, a couple bee-visits per month does not bother me much, but I have to coordinate bee-inspections with our backyard parties. My solution - do not bother bees during the week before the event and plan event for later time, after 4. I also thinking to relocate bees away from backyard, but it would require a lot of efforts since our property is very small and on the hill. Another location for the bees would be the roof. Anyway, I am quite happy with the current situation. Sergey


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## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> They don't follow me back to the house after working them. ...


 Hi Mark
Nice to see your posts again. I was thinking about this. It seems to me that the situation when there are lot of beehives in one place is different from, for instance my situation when I have only two beehives. I would imagine that in your case, bees have so many different "signals" from outside that their reaction is less specific (if any); individual reaction is just "dissolves" between many bees. Do you see my point? In your case bees must "guard" against other bees, against many different people walking on the road etc... in my situation, it is only me - it is easier to remember and develop specific approach (patrolling the backdoor but not front door). 
Alternative explanation would be that you have bees selected for not guarding backdoors. Based on this thread, apparently, it is common for bees to guard the backdoor - very interesting, I thought that my bees are unique... Sergey


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

cerezha said:


> Hi Mark
> Nice to see your posts again. Sergey


I've been around.


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## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

AUXCOM said:


> Hey Sergey,
> 
> All I know it is a registered Italian hive/queen inspected in the last month or so.
> 
> ...


 Hi Bob
As I mentioned in some other post, I am reluctant to requeen - I love my bees and they are survivors - I believe that they probably have good genes except the gene of hospitality. They are treatment free, they have mites count 50/24 hr and they flourish by any standards. They beautifully swarm, so I have a new queen from the same stock and swarm is going crazy! I do not think that Italian will survive in my conditions (no treatment, very little control over the nest). Thanks for posting. Sergey


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

cerezha said:


> It seems to me that the situation when there are lot of beehives in one place is different from, for instance my situation when I have only two beehives.
> 
> In your case bees must "guard" against other bees, against many different people walking on the road etc...
> 
> Alternative explanation would be that you have bees selected for not guarding backdoors. Based on this thread, apparently, it is common for bees to guard the backdoor - very interesting, I thought that my bees are unique... Sergey



Could be, I guess. I'm just skeptical that it is any one specific thing or that anecdotal observance necassarily means that what is being observed is in fact what is happening.

Fir instance, I don't think my bees exhibit anymore gaurding behavior at their numerous entrances than do hives in yards of two hives. I tend to believe that it has more to do w/ colony personality, exhibited by high defensive behavior or low defensive behavior.

I once inspected an Apiary w/ a beekeeper who told me to stop a distance from the hives and to put my veil on before getting out of the truck. Not knowing why he told me that I opened the door and stepped out of the truck. I was stung in the head twice before getting the veil on and hit a number of times in the chest.

I had never been there when those bees were there. They had no knowledge of me. No memory in other words. The beekeeper had not been in that yard for sometime himself. I can't say how long. I don't recall.

So, whereas we may be seeing behavior which indicates memory, we may also be observing normal bee behavior w/out any memory at all. More studys need to be done, imo.


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## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> I once inspected an Apiary w/ a beekeeper who told me to stop a distance from the hives and to put my veil on before getting out of the truck. Not knowing why he told me that I opened the door and stepped out of the truck. I was stung in the head twice before getting the veil on and hit a number of times in the chest....


 See, my situation is different - my bees are within 20 feet from my house and except this rare situation when they patrol the backdoor, they do not care if any people around - all my friends observed them from 2-3 feet distance. From another hand, bees associate deep inspection with me. In your example, obviously bees are africanized or had really bad genetics (defensive behavior). In my case it is not clear since bees behaved differently in different situation - they do not pay attention to people at normal circumstance, but they patrol backdoor after invasion and they show aggressiveness towards me (they do the same to others but with much less enthusiasm). I used to think that I just "invented" 3 bees paroling the backdoor. But, apparently other people noticed similar phenomena. What is interesting, the number of bees and number of days are similar. I do not know if it is smell or something else. I think, it is smell since they do recognize me when I am not in beesuit. Taking shower, changing perfume etc - did not help. At the same time, if my wife is standing next to me, they always choose me. Even my cat learned about these bee-patrol - she run into the house. Another bee-mystery. Sergey


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

cerezha said:


> obviously bees are africanized or had really bad genetics (defensive behavior).
> 
> 
> > Not Africanized, this was quite a long time ago in Northern NY. We had no AHB here then.
> ...


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## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

> Not Africanized, this was quite a long time ago in Northern NY. We had no AHB here then.
> 
> Defensive yes, bad genetics no. A trait you and I might find undesireable doesn't make it bad genetics, does it? They were the most productive hives he had after all.


 Mark
I heard many times from experienced beekeepers that defensive behavior is "bad genetics" and needs to be exterminated. It is not my opinion, it is an opinion of "experienced beekeepers" - you could find it on this beeforum and in many other places. I agree that "A trait you and I might find undesireable doesn't make it bad genetics". Sergey


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## dfortune (Aug 10, 2012)

I have to agree with Cerezha. Ive been using feral bees, many with a very bad temper, since i started beekeeping. Ive just now recently come to own pure gentle stock. From what ive seen so far my respect for aggressive behaviour has grown for their ability to control pests and intruders. Although, they do have to be managed somewhat differently.


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## Daniel Y (Sep 12, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> Were you wearing your white suit? *No for me, yes for my daughter*.
> 
> What if someone else had stepped out the back door? Do you expect different behavior on the bees part? *Yes, they seem to ignore others. I have observed them both target me and my daughter seperately, I have also observed them to do so in both cases for at least three days*.
> 
> ...


!!!


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

While it is true that very aggressive hives (AHB if you will) have many desirable traits. Anyone who truly wants to raise such bees should be doing so in an isolated area where they are certain there is no danger to others. I have had lots of well meaning landowners through the years come casually walking into a bee yard to chat since they have walked by in the past without problems. About a year ago I had a mother start walking into a yard with her two young children just to show them that they don't have to be afraid of the bees and this spring I had a pick-up load of young girl scout campers come driving out of a wooded area and drove straight at where we were working presumably to show the kids the bee hives and the strange looking beekeepers with their suits on. You hate to be rude but in both cases I had to shout the well meaning folks away. I constantly tell landowners that the bees won't bother you but it's best to keep a safe distance especially when we are working them as we have a tendency to stir them up a bit. So yes I will maintain that overly aggressive bees are bad genetics, why put innocent people at risk when there are more docile bees available.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

cerezha said:


> sqkcrk said:
> 
> 
> > cerezha said:
> ...


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## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> I'm confused. You seemed to express an opinion which you say isn't yours w/out attributing it?


Mark
Most of "opinions" come from someone else - I am a great learner and prefer to learn from others mistakes. I learn from books, from bee-classes, from beekeepers, from this forum. Most of my opinions are summary of collective knowledge. I apologize for confusion. I expressed my * personal* opinion on genetics of aggressive behavior of the bees in some other thread - you could search beesource for this. Sergey


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Okay, thanks for clearing that up. I am sure I do something similar, only it's not necassarily by gleaning a consensus of other's opinions on beesource, but through personal experience. Not that that is a superior way of learning or forming opinions I guess.

Those two highly agressive hives were two out of about 30 others in that yard and once we got throught them w/ good use of smoke and perserverence (snas gloves in my case) they didn't bother us while we inspected the rest of the hives. So, whereas they were initially defensive, they were not unmanagable. Not like what I hear of AHB, which I have no direct experience with, only knowledge of from talking w/ beekeepers and reading about them in magazines and on beesource. So I guess I do form opinions or develope a point of view on somethings based on what I read here on beesource. Huh, whata ya know.


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## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> I am sure I do something similar, only it's not necassarily by gleaning a consensus of other's opinions on beesource, but through personal experience. Not that that is a superior way of learning or forming opinions I guess.


 Personal experience is very valuable in my opinion. The problem with this is that if I would use in science the only personal experience, I will be far-far behind of the good science. In order to be at the front - we shall learn from many (this is why scientific papers). This is only way known to me, so I am using the same approach in beekeeping. Last night I just finish reading wonderful Russian novel about bees. The author is engineer by profession and beekeeper by passion. He described how Varrova killed most of the bees in Russia and how "middle-russia" bees were raised from the ashes. Apparently, one beehive survived in the cupola of abandon church in the village. When all bees in the area was destroyed by Varroa, local people cleaned up the beehives, disinfected them and put in their gardens empty. Eventually, some of these beehives were occupied by swarms from the church beehive. These 1st generation new bees were called "holy-bees" by locals. It is believed that "middle-russia" varroa-resiatant bees originated from those bees. Church beehive has been destroyed during the "perestroika" and according to the legend, all "participants" (who destroyed the hive) ended up dying from horrible causes. See, there is no way I could have such first-hand experience, but I could learn from the story. Sergey


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