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

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Abstract
SUMMARY Several 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.