Drifting of Honeybees in Commercial Apiaries. III. Effect of Apiary Layout

SUMMARYSeveral of the apiary layouts studied reduced drifting, and also allowed for easy colony management and the siting of many hives in a small area. The reduction in drifting is probably due to irregular arrangement of hives whose entrances face different directions. Drifting was significantly reduced with a V formation (close to a windbreak), and with a U or sigmoid formation, or sets of four hives (either close to or away from a windbreak), also with a circle layout (away from a windbreak). Sets of four hives with entrances facing inwards, in open field sites, gave rise to considerable drifting, but the bee populations usually remained balanced within the colonies. With a row of paired hives, drift was greater from centre colonies to end colonies than vice versa (as in a row of single hives); bees mainly drifted to hives on the same side of the pair as their parent hive. Data are also presented about drifting from colonies in a row of paired hives after uniting one pair.