Swarms and moon phase

[Ross]

We just had a full moon and I heard about several swarms. It got me to wondering if there is a corelation between moon phase and bee activity, particularly swarms. I know fish and most animals respond to moon phases. Bass bed on the full moon and occassionally on the dark of the moon. How about bees? Any studies?

[Jim Fischer]

I love stuff like this.
Makes you go back to first principles
in multiple disciplines.

Entomology + Astronomy = Astro-Entomology?

Bees don't even know that the moon exists.
They've never seen it.

The punchline is that bees also have never seen the sun.

To explain, the Sun as viewed from Earth is 0.5 degrees
wide in the sky. The moon appears the same size as viewed
from the Earth. (Eclipses of the sun by the moon should
make this clear.)

The minimum resolution of a bee's compound eye is about
2.5 degrees. Any detail smaller than that simply is not
going to "register" on the brain of the bee as more than
a "pinpoint". Sure, the apparent brightness of the
"pinpoint" is going to vary with the phase of the moon,
but the maximum brightness of the moon as viewed from
Earth is only about 10% of the Sun's brightness, so I
am forced to wonder if bees can detect such a low light
level at all.

So, the phase of the moon cannot be seen by bees, nor
is the tiny amount of ultraviolet light reflected by
even a full moon enough to trigger a bee's UV receptors
in the bee's ocelli (atop the head, used to navigate via
the UV pattern in the sky on a reasonably cloud-free day.

Here's a paper on how bees do at discerning small visual
targets:
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/206/13/2105

Sorry to put a pin in such a pretty balloon,
but I'm still amazed at how the moon and the
Sun just happen to be exactly the right sizes
at exactly the right distances to make eclipses
so useful for studying the sun.

[Ross]

The fish don't actually react to the sight of the moon either, it's more the pressure changes, or so I hear (tides). It's not the sight of moon that changes people's moods either.

[Jim Fischer]

> The fish don't actually react to the sight of the
> moon either, it's more the pressure changes,

What pressure changes? From the moon?
Barometric pressure? Gravitational pull?

> or so I hear (tides).

Tides would be an issue for saltwater bass,
but not for lake bass. Most lakes aren't big
enough to have any "tidal effect".

> It's not the sight of moon that changes
> people's moods either.

I can't really discuss moods, as the moon is
full tonight, so I will transform into a
wolf, and must take myself out for a walk
before bed. smile.gif

[Dick Allen]

>I am forced to wonder if bees can detect such a low light
level at all.

Apis dorsata forages on moonlit nights when the moon is between half-full and full according to, at least, Eva Crane and James Gould. Both Crane and Gould also mention A. mellifera adansonii, the central African bee flying on moonlit nights.

Interestingly, the dance of A. dorsata indicates the direction, not of the moon, but of the (hidden) sun.

Not a bee certainly, but the African dung beetle apparently navigates by polarizied light from the moon.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/07/0702_030702_dungbeetle.html

[buckbee]

The moon affects human behaviour and the growth of plants, so why not bees?

There were certainly swarms around in the 48 hrs before this full moon - I helped to catch one of them - and I have not seen or heard of any others during the last three weeks.

If you doubt that the moon affects human behaviour, I suggest you ask any policeman who patrols an inner city area if they tend to have more trouble around the full moon.

[beegee]

I had the same question. I caught a swarm one month ago during the full moon. I caught another Sunday evening and I had a call this morning about another. The moon was full(or close to it + or- a little) last night. If the moon can affect tides, plant and human behavior, I think it certainly would affect insect behavior.

[Terri]

When the bees dance to show the others where the nectar is, do they not dance according to the angle of the food to the sun?

[Jim Fischer]

The points from Crane about A. dorsata and
A. mellifera adansonii certainly are interesting.
Both are from "jungled" areas, so being
able to operate in lower light levels
(under the forest canopy) "makes sense" for them.

> If you doubt that the moon affects human
> behaviour, I suggest you ask any policeman who
> patrols an inner city area if they tend to have
> more trouble around the full moon.

The wonderful thing about the internet is that
there are so many great sites with well-researched
and fact-checked information like this one:

http://skepdic.com/fullmoon.html

CSICOP was started by James ("The Amazing") Randi,
magician and debunker of all manner of bunk, and
by Martin Gardner, who wrote monthly columns for
Scientific American for so many years.

The oft-quoted "study" showing that more crimes
happen on a full moon only showed the correlation
after over 40 different statistical methods were
tried on the data, each showing no such pattern.
In short, the study was a fraud.

http://www.csicop.org/si/9705/moonshine.html

As an aside, data about any "random event"
compared to a "gradual, predictably changing event"
(temperature, which changes with the seasons,
the moon phase, which cycles back and forth
between "new" and "full", etc)
is subject to an interesting statistically
anomaly called "serial correlation".

You can read about just how common the error
is here:
http://www.bee-quick.com/reprints/rain.pdf

[Sundance]

Fish and Game are affected by lunar effects. If it is light or gravitational I am unsure. The possibility of bees reacting to it is at least plausable.

I grew up on Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota. The lake was roughly 20 miles X 15 miles and relatively shallow.

I have seen, and experienced, tidal flow over shallow reefs. I used to fish walleye on the leeward side of that tidal flow. I am unsure if it was lunar or solar.

Now there may not be statistical evidence to support my observation...... but there were countless limets of walleye for my confirmation.

[Ross]

You are right that most lakes don't experience a true tidal effect. It is also true that most Texas lakes are so black you can't see 2 inches in front of your face. I know, I'm a diver. The bass still move onto the beds in the 3 days before the full moon. As to human effects, I experience them, nuf said here.

[Ross]

In the 1930s a professor from Northwestern University in Illinois used oysters – removed from light and away from the tides of the ocean – to determine their feeding habits. He successfully discovered that oysters opened their shells to feed when the moon was directly above or below the oysters. They were not influenced by the high and low tides after removal from their natural environment.

John Knight (Columbia University and originator the barometric theory of fishing ) performed research on record catches of fish and compared this to the solunar table and found that 90 percent of the lunkers were caught during what the solunar table would indicate as high activity periods.

[Mead Maker]

I had two swarms from my 11 hives on May 22. I'll begin keeping track.

Astronomical and geological events affect things more than we're currently aware of, and "folklore" is often based on supportable observations of people who were more in tune with nature than we are. For example, a few days ago there was an article regarding a recent finding that women reach menopause later if they are born in the fall (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05138/505831.stm). There are subtle effects that events in the universe have on biology - we're just not aware of them all.

Sometimes scientists are slow to find the evidence to prove what people over the ages have accurately observed.

[MIKI]

Full moon = better light better hunting and foraging simply put they can see better so they are more active. Taking advantage of a situation. So it is the moon light that plays a part. The mystical part is a bunch of hooey.

I lived 2 blocks from the ocean in NJ growing up fished all my life.
High tide = food source that was not previously under water attracts bait fish which bring in the game fish.

Moon light: see above it's the same.

Its not that game does not feed in the dark it's just that your chances of killing it are better!

[Michael Bush]

Just my observation. I know a lot of people who work in emergency rooms. I don't know of any who don't believe they are significantly busier and people are significantly crazier on the full moon. I have several friends and relatives in law enforcement and they all say the same. Since I don't work in any place like that, I have no opinion on it.

I figure the "scientific types" won't believe it no matter what because they equate it with superstition. The "anti scientific types" will believe it no matter what because the scientists don't believe in it. smile.gif The rest of us will just make our own observations.

But, in my observation, I've never noticed any lunar patterns in bee behavoir. The seasons and the length of the days, however, seem to have a huge effect.

[Jim Fischer]

> I figure the "scientific types" won't believe it
> no matter what because they equate it with
> superstition.

That wouldn't be a "scientific type", would it?
An actual "scientific type" is willing to draw
conclusions when the observations are "significant",
that is, highly unlikely to be due to chance alone,
or statistical anomoly alone.

The only lunar event that I can say will result
in an observable impact on bees would be a
"Annular" or "Total" eclipse of the sun. Even
then, it would be hard to see much impact, as the
bees would shift over to "VFR" navigation, and
find their way around using landmarks alone
rather than by both the pattern of UV rays in the
sky and landmarks.

> The seasons and the length of the days, however,
> seem to have a huge effect.

Fer sure.

[Bob Harrison]

Beekeepers keeping bees in California (and also myself when wintering bees in California) all say the same thing.

Bees will NOT start brooding up until after the winter soltice (Dec. 21 2005). Putting pollen patties & feeding does no good until after the soltice. Been there done that. Did not work!

A Canada beekeeper asked me by direct email yesterday if he could bring bees into California
(if the border was open as I expect it soon will be. Opps!) in Oct./Nov. , feed and spilt three ways.

Nope! Can't fool the bees! You get about five weeks to brood up before almonds. Two way split maybe but the bees still need to build to pollination strength from a winter cluster. One split from fivestrong hives (if any) is the norm if the split is to be rented for almond pollination.

Beekeeping books never tell you these things.

"What we don't know is so vast it makes what we do know seem absurd" Bob Harrison

[Curry]

Women do, in fact, often go into labor during a full moon, like any OB will tell you. Likewise, after a storm women go into labor (a drop in barometric pressure allows for increased dialation).

Likewise, bees often swarm after a storm (due to a barimetric pressure change?). Now, I've not heard of, or seen the moon influencing swarming, but I wouldn't not ask the question just cause it sounds unplausible. I would have never believed the stuff about labor, except after talking to those that work there...

[Dick Allen]

... do they not dance according to the angle of the food to the sun?They do according to the books. Scout bees, according to the books, also dance on the swarm to give a location for a new nesting site. Norm Gary writing in THATHB: “While studying bees in swarms, Lindauer (1954) found that bees ‘searching’ for a new nest site danced even during the night. What is astonishing is that those bees correctly indicated the position of the sun during any time of night without seeing it.”

[Mead Maker]

An actual "scientific type" is willing to draw
conclusions when the observations are "significant",
that is, highly unlikely to be due to chance alone, or statistical anomoly alone. I agree with the scientists. I just think that sometimes SOME scientists discount things as superstition because they haven't made the right observations - in other words, the phenomenon hasn't been studied, or the correct questions haven't been asked in order to find the scientific basis for an age-old observation. Perhaps we should all keep track of the dates we know of a swarm, and try to determine whether there's truly a correlation between swarming and the lunar calendar. That would be a somewhat scientific (although not perfect) study, right?

[Michael Bush]

>Nope! Can't fool the bees!

Interestingly, you CAN fool chickens by using a light to simulate longer days. I wonder if there is any way to fool the bees...

[Dick Allen]

Polarized light filters and the like have been used to fool bees and other insects and actually make them change course during their travels.

[Bob Harrison]

A way to stimulate the bees to brood earlier would be a valuable tool for the beekeeper doing almond pollination.

Do chickens respond to ultraviolet light as bees do?

Is it as simple as the light and longer days or has it to do with the equinox. Such as something unknown which effects the bees caused by some force of the equinox?


I have never noticed a change in bee behavior with the vernal (approx. March 21st.) or autumnal equinox (approx. Sept. 21st.)
Maybe bee behavior changes then also but goes unnoticed.

[Jim Fischer]

I recall a study done in Florida that attempted
to "lengthen" the day with artificial light in
an attempt to get colony build-up started sooner,
but I cannot even recall where I saw the citation.

Whatever they tried did not work, but I doubt if
they used the modern "full spectrum" bulbs that
exist now.

Something to try next winter...

[BULLSEYE BILL]

The following are dates and number of swarms I picked up. Unfortunatly it does not account for the calls from people that were unwilling to pay for the service. I started this list on May 1st, the last quarter moon, and I don't take calls on weekends.

Last Q 5-1
cold rainy week

Friday 5-6...2

New Moon 5-8
turned hot

Monday 5-9...3
Tuesda 5-10..2
Thursd 5-12..1

First Q 5-16

Monday 5-16..1
Tuesda 5-17..1
Thursd 5-19..1
Friday 5-20..1

Full Moon 5-23
cloudy, cool, rainy
Monday 5-23..1
Thursd 5-25..1

I am more apt to say that they swarm more in the dark of the moon, but hot weather makes them break out more.

The first week of May was very wet and cold, picked up 0.

The second week of May warmed up into 90's and picked up 8.

The third week of May we had some rain, cooler, picked up 4.

This week was cool and wet and picked up 2 so far.