%0 Journal Article
%T Hive Relocation Does Not Adversely Affect Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Foraging
%A Fiona C. Riddell Pearce
%A Margaret J. Couvillon
%A Francis L. W. Ratnieks
%J Psyche
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/693856
%X Honey bees, Apis mellifera, face major challenges including diseases and reduced food availability due to agricultural intensification. Additionally, migratory beekeeping may subject colonies to a moving stress, both during the move itself and after the move, from the bees having to forage in a novel environment where they have no knowledge of flower locations. This study investigated the latter. We moved three colonies housed in observation hives onto the campus from a site 26£¿km away and compared their foraging performance to three similarly sized colonies at the same location that had not been moved. We obtained data on (1) foraging performance by calculating distance by decoding waggle dances, (2) hive foraging rate by counting forager departure rate, (3) forage quality by assessing sugar content of nectar from returning foragers, and (4) forager success by calculating the proportion of bees returning to the nest entrance with nectar in their crop. We repeated this 3 times (August 2010, October 2010, and June 2011) to encompass any seasonal effects. The data show no consistent difference in foraging performance of moved versus resident hives. Overall the results suggest that moving to a new location does not adversely affect the foraging success of honey bees. 1. Introduction Beekeepers routinely move colonies of honey bees Apis mellifera L. to pollinate crops and to take advantage of asynchrony in nectar flows. For example, in the United Kingdom some hives are moved into apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) farms for pollination in early April and onto heather (Calluna vulgaris) moors in late July for obtaining heather honey. In the USA, hives are moved from as far away as Florida to pollinate California almonds in February, a distance of 3000 miles that will take a minimum of 2 to 3 days by truck. Bees are also moved extensively in many other countries (e.g., Turkey [1]). Moving hives has been suggested as an aggravating factor in the decline in colony numbers in the United States [2¨C4]. Honey bees are an important commercial crop pollinator [4, 5]. Although the number of managed hives has increased by about 45% globally since 1961, the rate of expansion of pollinator-dependant crops is greater than the increase in the number of managed hives, creating increased demand for pollination ([6], although see [7]). In addition, the number of managed hives has declined in Europe and North America, at an average of 1.79% annually [6]. This potential pollinator shortage is most serious in the USA, where insect pollinated crops are widely grown. For example, the
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/psyche/2013/693856/