SUMMARYThe development of the « Apicard » (Automatic honey-bee Counting and Recording Device) has contributed a means for continuous sampling of honey bee activity at the hive entrance and simultaneously recording the data obtained. These data provide a measure with which quantitative expressions of the daily activity cycle for a honey-bee colony can be made.In this paper, activity responses to two weather elements, solar radiation and temperature are considered. While these two elements are naturally interrelated, the honey bees appear to respond to each differently. For temperature, the response is positive. Increasing temperatures result in increasing flight departures while decreasing temperatures show decreasing numbers of departures. In the case of solar radiation intensity, the response is both positive and negative. At low radiation levels, increasing intensity is associated with increasing numbers of flight departures but at solar radiation levels greater than 0.66 langleys, increasing intensities are associated with decreasing numbers of honey bee flight departures.

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