June 13 The Bees Just Keep Coming! Adventures with the Migrating Giant Honey Bees of ThailandWill Robinson, Biology Instructor, Casper College

The giant honey bee, Apis dorsata, faces many threats. Paramount among them is habitat loss. The forests of South and Southeast Asia, the habitat of the giant bee, are undergoing the most rapid deforestation occurring anywhere in the world.

In 2009 I discovered a unique stopover site—an orchard along the Pai River in northwestern Thailand--where colonies of migrating giant honey bees bivouacked in close proximity to one another. The following year numerous bivouacs gathered at the orchard in approximately the same time frame.

In 2016, I again observed many bivouacs in and near the orchard, spanning almost precisely the time period in which they appeared in 2010. The bivouacs also occupied almost exactly the same area as in 2010.

In my talk I will describe the site, the bivouacs and the bees’ migratory dances in preparation for departure flights; plus foraging, ventilation and defensive behavior.

Stopover sites have never before been documented for giant honey bees, but are doubtless essential to the life history of these migratory populations, and are thus deserving of conservation policies.

In addition to the scientific report, I will be presenting many pictures and anecdotes of natural history and life in northern Thailand.