3 ms·

I wonder if it's possible for one farm to put up a literal screen, a physical barrier, to keep out neighboring bees. It might not have to go all the way around,

I wonder if it's possible for one farm to put up a literal screen, a physical barrier, to keep out neighboring bees. It might not have to go all the way around, but maybe just block most of the major flight paths from one to the next. Seems like it wouldn't need to block 100%, but maybe 80-90% would be a big help. As someone who knows zero about this, I'm just curious if something like this would be feasible.

giantg2 3y ago
Bees typically fly at tree top levels and have a typical range of about 2.5-3 miles. This is part of why certified organic honey produced in the US is non-existent. The USDA is working on an organic certification for honey, but without being able to certify the food sources within a 2.5 mile radius (the draft mentioned this as the likely cutoff), it's practically impossible in most areas. However, hive spacing can have a big impact. While some transmission does happen at shared flowers, the transmission is very likely between hives due to worker or drone drift. If you have 4 hives on a single pallet (common commercial practice) you will see a lot of bees returning to hives that were not their own. Increasing hive spacing can reduce the number of drifting bees, and possibly reduce transmission.