Can Bees Fly At Night?

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Can bees fly at night? Yes. Can they fly well at night? That depends on a number of factors. We will have a look at this and visit a few humorous incidents that I have encountered over the years.

It is quite simple – they clip their wings together and then buzz the wings and steer using the angle of their wings and even their little feet.

Do you know...

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Honeybees fly perpendicular to the Sun. The Sun is about 92,955,807 miles away, so flying perpendicular to this light source results in a nearly straight line of flight.

How Do Bees Fly-In Straight Lines?

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Under full Moon conditions when there are very strong honey flows, the bees will occasionally fly at night using the Moon as a light source. The moon is about 238,855 miles away. If bees fly perpendicular to the Moon, the line of flight will be relatively straight.

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How Did We Mess All Of This Up?

Until rather recently the only real sources of light that were bright enough for bees to see were the Sun, the Moon, fire, and lightning. 

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Do Bees Fly At Night?

Moonlight As we have said, yes, they will naturally fly under a bright moon if there is a strong honey flow. I have seen this first hand so I know it’s true.

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ADVICE

Light pollution is now a serious problem globally. I would advise trying to place some low wattage motion sensor light such as this in the bathroom if you must have light there at night. 

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