Estimating Foraging Populations of Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from Individual Colonies

A nondestructive trapping system to capture returning honey bees, Apis melifera L., at the hive entrance is described. The system provided a direct estimate of the foraging population of a colony. Each bee passed through one of 24 access tubes in the lid of a box-like trap attached to the hive entrance. Bees could crawl, but could not fly, through the 1.27-cm-diameter tubes. To trap bees, the interior tube walls were coated with paraffin oil. Upon entering the oiled tubes, the bees slipped into a mesh bag fastened under the lid inside the trap. The number of captured bees was estimated by weighing.