Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXII, Issue 2
Written by Silvia PĂTRUICĂ, Eliza SIMIZ, Ioan PEȚ, Lavinia ȘTEF
The climate changes of recent years are affecting the foraging behaviour of bee colonies. We present correlations found between flight time of foraging worker bees, the quantity of food material harvested expressed in terms of hive weight, and meteorological factors (temperature and humidity). Bee colonies were monitored hourly throughout each 24 hour period using the BeeWatch Professional recording system. Monitoring was carried out during the oilseed rape (Brassica napus oleifera) collection period over a 13 day interval in 2018 and 2019. Results show positive correlations statistically significant (p<0.01) between flight time of foraging workers and temperature. The influence of humidity on flight time shows a negative correlation at the same level of significance (p<0.01). Hive weight is postively correlated with a mean temperature of 20.7˚C and negatively with a mean humidity of 65%.
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