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Bee Behavior and Biology

These sets of articles offer methods from hundreds of hours of scientific trials for managing hive dynamics and maintaining colony health. It covers important topics like bee drift, mite migration, and seasonal population changes, offering insights on how these factors impact mite control, swarming, and hive organization. You can also learn how primer pheromones influence hive stability, and help you make informed decisions to manage mite spread, support strong colony buildup, and maintain hive stability through pheromone-driven bee behaviors.

A Survey on Robbing at Collapse

Contents Robbing is Governed by Olfaction Back to what happens upon colony collapse A Survey on Whether Robbing Takes Place at Collapse My Conclusions From the Survey Responses Relationship to Bee and Mite Drift A humorous anecdote regarding training bees to a scent Acknowledgements Citations and notes   A SURVEY ON ROBBING AT COLLAPSE Randy...

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A Study on Bee and Mite Drift: Part 2

 Contents Questions to Answer 1 Materials and Methods 2 Placement of the hives 2 Preparation of the Mite Donor Colonies. 3 Tagging the bees 3 The Control Group. 7 Preparation of the Mite Receiver Hives 7 Eliminating the mites. 7 Magnetic tag recovery. 9 The stickyboards. 10 The hive scales. 10 Layout of the Donor...

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A Study on Bee Drift and Mite Immigration: Part 1

  Contents Introduction Was Another Field Study Justified? Background Research The Biology Behind Mite Transfer Between Hives How Much Mite Immigration Actually Occurs? How Do the Mites Get Transferred? How Important is the Drifting of Drones? How Much Drift is There of Worker Bees? How Important are the Guard Bees? Do Mites and Viruses Cause...

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A Study on Bee Drift and Mite Immigration: Part 3

Contents The Donor Colonies 1 Tagging. 1 Results and Discussion. 2 Did the Tagged Bees Behave Normally?. 2 Progress of the Colonies. 4 Answering our Questions 4 Observations from the Donor Hives. 5 Correlation With Varroa Infestation. 6 Tag Recovery by Date. 8 Timelines of Recovery of Drifted Bees 9 Relevance to Mite Immigration. 10...

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A Study on Bee Drift and Mite Immigration: Part 4

Contents Distance that Worker Bees will Drift 1 Effect of Distance upon Bee Drift 4 Hive-to-Hive Variation in Captured Tags 7 Validating our Methodology. 8 Mite Immigration: Results of the Stickyboard Counts. 10 Cumulative Mite Immigration. 11 Next Month. 12 Acknowledgements. 13 Citations and Notes 13     A Study on Bee and Mite Drift:...

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A Study on Bee Drift and Mite Immigration: Part 5

Contents A Deeper Look into our Data. 1 Was Robbing Involved with Mite Immigration?. 6 Discussion on Robbing. 8 Study Wrap Up. 9 Review.. 10 Next Month. 10 Acknowledgements. 11 Citations and Notes 11     A Study on Bee Drift and Mite Immigration Part 5 Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in ABJ June 2023...

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A Study on Bee Drift and Mite Immigration: Part 6

A Study on Bee Drift and Mite Immigration Part 6 Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in ABJ July 2023     In our 2018 study in the California foothills, we confirmed that bees indeed drift from collapsing colonies to other hives, even to those at considerable distance. And that drifting can result in a substantial...

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Robbing Screens Part 9: Designing a Robbing Screen that Works in Conjunction with the Colony’s Guard Bees

  Robbing Screens Part 9: Designing a Robbing Screen that Works in Conjunction with the Colony’s Guard Bees Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ March 2025   The defenders of a colony against robbing are its resident guard force.  Do the current designs of robbing screens help or hinder those guard bees?  Robbing Starts...

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Robbing Screens: Part 8– Do They Work in Concert with Guard Bees

Contents An Unsuccessful Attempt to Create Robbing  Field Observations of the Guards Behind Robbing Screens  How Colonies Guard Themselves against Foreign Bees  The Behavior of Guard Bees  My Conclusions  Next Month  Acknowledgements  Citations and Notes  Robbing Screens Part 8: Do They Work in Concert with the Guard Bees? Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ...

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