From: "Allen Dick" <allend@internode.net>
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2002 22:19:06 -0700
To: <BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: moving hives...

> What I was really looking for were explanations that conclusively outline
> the orientation behaviour of bees and their ability to either orient to a
> new location or not.

Unless you understand your bees and what they are doing at a given moment in time, further explanations are bound to be futile. The question itself is like asking "Can people find their way home?" -- a hopelessly vague question.

I gave you as good an answer as you can expect. This whole matter cannot be summed up much more neatly. Any attempt to simplify it further is bound to be highly theoretical. What causes bees to orient or not is a complex matter, but not difficult to understand most of the time. I explained the various factors to consider. You are going to have to learn to observe and to think like a bee.

If you do learn to understand what your bees are doing -- and why -- at any
particular time, you can easily understand what you can do -- and not do --
with them at that moment and the question will go away.

> Whereas the professional beekeeper might not worry too much about losing
say, 10% of the field force...

Perhaps you think you are wiser and more empathetic than a pro? I doubt it.
A person doesn't usually get to be and stay a pro by being ham-handed and
dumb and routinely throwing away 10% of his workers. Although some pros are
not worried about losing a few bees, most of us don't deliberately waste
them, and we do care about them -- on a scale, frankly, that a hobbyist
cannot begin to imagine.

What I was saying was that we do know what we are doing because we look at
our bees and they tell us. We work with them and co-operate with them.

Learn from your bees.

allen