91
GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Orientation Flights
« Last post by The15thMember on May 07, 2024, 11:55:59 pm »If she lays them every day, then I would expect bees to be in every stage of their life every day and orientation flights would take place every day.This is how I would characterize the situation. Orientation flights for my bees are almost always an afternoon affair, maybe from like 2:30-5:00, every day, as long as they haven't had a brood break, the weather is good, and it's flying season. Bees who are orienting will be hovering in front of the hive just studying it or flying in ever-widening circles around the hive.
Except research suggests that they only take them weather permitting. I had a cloudy afternoon here but they held an orientation class just the same.Weather permitting means "as long as it's not raining or below 60 degrees". Clouds are no problem for bees. With their ultraviolet vision, they can see the polarized light of the sun through the clouds, so they can basically see the sun's location unless the cloud cover is exceedingly dense. And that would basically only be when it's raining and they can't go out anyway.