Effects of meteorological factors on defensive behaviour of honey bees

The defensive behaviour of honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera L.) was quantitated in the field throughout a three month season by the use of a standardized test in which numbers of stings in a leather target were counted after single colonies were opened and exposed to alarm pheromone. The main results show how the defensive behaviour of honey bees is highly dependent on weather factors. Eliminating genetic variance, the following meteorological variables account for 92.4% of the variation in defensive behaviour: air temperature, solar radiation intensity, wind velocity, relative humidity, and barometric pressure. © 1987 Swets & Zeitlinger.