Bees play a fundamental role in ecosystems through pollination. How long bees stay in one place refers to either the movements of an individual bee or the long-term residency of an entire colony. Both perspectives reveal distinct patterns of mobility and permanence.
A Single Bee’s Daily Activities
An individual worker bee has a short life, typically lasting five to seven weeks. During her initial weeks, she performs various tasks within the hive, such as cleaning cells, feeding younger larvae, and producing wax for comb construction. As she ages, her responsibilities shift, and she transitions into a foraging bee.
Foraging bees are highly mobile, making multiple trips outside the hive each day to collect nectar, pollen, water, and propolis. A single foraging trip can last around an hour, and a bee may visit 50 to 100 flowers during this time. While bees can fly up to 12 kilometers from their hive, most foraging occurs within a 3-kilometer radius, often less than 1 kilometer. Foragers exhibit flower constancy, focusing on a single plant species per trip.
The Hive as a Permanent Home
While individual bees are constantly on the move, the colony generally establishes a long-term residence. This central hub, the hive or nest, serves as the storage site for honey and pollen, and the nursery for the queen and developing brood. The queen bee, the colony’s reproductive leader, spends almost her entire life within the hive, leaving only for initial mating flights. She can live for two to five years, contributing to the colony’s stability.
A healthy bee colony can inhabit the same location for many years, sometimes even decades, provided conditions remain favorable. This long-term residency allows the colony to build substantial comb structures and accumulate necessary resources. The colony’s continuity, despite the turnover of individual bees, highlights the hive’s role as a stable entity. If environmental factors are suitable, the home can endure.
When and Why Hives Move
Despite their permanence, bee colonies do relocate under specific circumstances, primarily through swarming and absconding. Swarming is a natural reproductive behavior where a portion of the colony leaves to establish a new home. This occurs in spring or early summer when the hive becomes overcrowded, the queen’s pheromone levels decline, or abundant resources signal an opportunity for expansion. During a swarm, the old queen departs with roughly half of the worker bees, leaving behind a new queen to continue the original colony.
The departing swarm initially clusters temporarily on a nearby object, like a tree branch or fence, forming a bivouac. This temporary stop can last from a few hours to a few days, allowing scout bees to search for a suitable permanent nesting site. Once a new home is located, the entire cluster takes flight and moves to their chosen destination to begin building new comb.
Absconding, in contrast to swarming, involves the entire bee colony abandoning its hive due to unfavorable conditions. This is an emergency response to severe stress, unlike swarming’s reproductive nature. Common triggers for absconding include prolonged food or water shortages, leading bees to seek better forage. Infestations by pests like Varroa mites, small hive beetles, or wax moths, or diseases, can also drive a colony to leave its current location.
Environmental disturbances also play a role in absconding. Factors like excessive heat, poor ventilation, frequent disturbances, loud noises, strong chemical smells, or issues with the hive’s physical structure can render a location uninhabitable. When a colony absconds, they leave behind most of their brood and food stores, in stark contrast to swarming where new queen cells are prepared. This behavior can occur at any time of year, in response to sudden and severe threats.