# Foraging schedule?



## WilMorris (May 15, 2013)

I've been searching all over the web and can't find much published research regarding the time a worker bee spends in the field and returning to the hive. - percentage or ratio of a population in the field at a given time of day, etc. I'm sure there's got to be something out there that could be beneficial knowledge to the cutout artist- complete with fancy graphs and charts and everything that is nerdy and cool . Does anyone have any links they can direct me to. Even any hearsay knowledge or personal experience is welcome too. 
Thanks


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## WilMorris (May 15, 2013)

I hope folks get why I posted this here in the cutout forum.. It's just something I've been thinking about during cutouts..When will they return? What percentage by the time I'm done closing it up? How many bees will show up to figure out the new hive box situation after I've sealed up the wall or whatever by a certain time of the afternoon or eve..etc. Some people don't really want me showing up after dark or working that late (and neither do I sometimes- especially if I am driving for several miles) so I hope to get a better idea of how many bees might I lose if I can't return to collect them all, and how many lingering workers should I advise the customer to be prepared to accept for the next couple weeks.


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## hedges (May 18, 2013)

http://psych.mcmaster.ca/dukas/Dukas & Visscher 94.pdf

http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/apiculture/factsheets/111_foraging.htm

Bees apparently forage for about an average of an hour, and make 5-10 trips a day, but YMMV. Percentage of the hive isn't really the proper way to look at foragers, as bees need to be old enough to forage, basically, and also must not be needed to cover brood or do some of the other things in the hive. So you have to estimate how many bees were born in the interval 20-40 days ago...subtract some percentage for deaths, some percentage for being in the hive, some percentage for covering brood (from expansion, or a fresh hive)...so, I'd roughly guess 10, 30, 10, respectively...VERY rough guesses...and say about 50 percent of your original number (# of workers 20-40 days old) are out foraging.

On an unrelated note - I went to Reed. I miss Portland...especially the less severe climate. It was 111 degrees on the Boston freeway yesterday.


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## WilMorris (May 15, 2013)

Oh yeah! Good links and thoughts> Thanks hedges for the start


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

This time of year some won't get home until tomorrow.


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