The Quantitative and Qualitative Effect of Weather Upon Colony Weight Changes

Abstract

Correlations were made during the spring honey flows of 1922 and 1923 at Somerset, Maryland, between changes in weight of a colony of bees and daily variation in temperature, relative humidity, hours of sunshine and solar radiation. By use of the formula for multiple correlation, exact response to changes in weight of the colony to changes in each of these weather factors was calculated. A variation in colony weight depends upon two factors acting jointly, namely the nectar secretion activity on the plants and the behavior of bees engaged in gathering nectar and pollen From the above mentioned calculations the exact weight was given to each of the weather factors considered. A variation from the average temperature was thus noted to have either a positive or a negative effect upon the weight of the colony which in turn could be expressed in terms of grams depending upon the number of degrees the temperature varied from the average. For example, when the daily temperature was four degrees above the average, there resulted from this an increase in colony weight of so many grams due to this one factor alone. Although the other weather factors were constantly affecting the weight of the colony, at the same time the results attributed to temperature, for instance, represent that factor alone since corrections were made in each case for the effect of other factors. A quantitative as well as a qualitative analysis is given for all the weather factors enumerated above.