Preliminary Experimental Trial of Effects of Lattice Fence Installation on Honey Bee Flight Height as Implications for Urban Beekeeping Regulations

Tomonori Matsuzawa,Ryo Kohsaka

doi:10.3390/land11010019

Abstract

Urban beekeeping has gained salience because of its significance in biodiversity conservation and community building. Despite this, beekeeping practices in urban areas have received negative perceptions from residents, which stem from public safety concerns. There is, therefore, a need to enhance and/or work on appropriate rules for maximizing the profits while minimizing the risks. Amongst the present regulations, the installation of barriers and setbacks is the most common rule for public safety. However, only a limited number of empirical studies have reported on their effective location and height. Thus, in this study, an experimental apiary was set up with different types of barriers installed with varying distances to observe and measure flyway patterns of honey bees. We used a 3D laser scanner, which obtained 8529 points of highly accurate flight location data in about five hours. Results showed that the heights (1.8 and 0.9 m) of the barriers installed were effective in increasing the flight altitudes. The distance of the fence, which was installed as close as 1 m from the hives, was effective as well. These findings, which showed that barriers and setbacks are effective, can have regulatory implications in designing apiaries in urban spaces, where location is often restricted.

Highlights

Beekeeping in the context of agroforestry systems is vital for supportinglocallivelihoods, in forest villages [1,2]
The same test was conducted for the flight height dataset and similar results were obtained, rejecting the null hypothesis
The purpose of this study is to reveal the effect of barrier installation on the flight

Summary

Introduction

Beekeeping in the context of agroforestry systems is vital for supportinglocallivelihoods (e.g., production of honey and beeswax), in forest villages [1,2]. In Canada, beekeepers are paid to provide pollination services for hybrid canola seed productions [5] Despite their socio-ecological importance, there has been a decline in bee colonies over the last decade, which has renewed interest in honey bees, in relation to colony collapse disorder [6]. This in turn has resulted in the global expansion of urban keeping [7], and scientists have argued that keeping bees in urban settings might be more beneficial for their survival due to the reduced exposure to agricultural pesticides and limited assortment of plants for foraging [8,9]. Urban beekeeping has gained salience because of its significance in biodiversity conservation, food production, and community building in urban areas [10,11,12]

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Conclusion