A method to condition honey bees to search for a non-rewarding producing target
odor source enables bees to identify a number of chemical substances such as those
associated with unexploded ordnances, land mines, and illicit drug laboratories.
Further, the subject method can be used to increase pollination efficiency by conditioning
the bees to search for a specific vapor from a target crop. The method includes
conditioning the bees to the target odor by moving their hives into a staging area.
The staging area is located at least two miles from the ultimate site to be searched.
The target odor is applied to the hive. Bulk feeders containing the target odor
are placed near the hive. The hives are reoriented to the bulk feeders for several
days. The hives are then moved to the search site and feeding/conditioning trays
containing the target odor are placed nearby. For the first, approximately 24 hours,
the bees are fed from the feeding/conditioning trays. Thereafter, periods of feeding
and starvation are alternated to encourage the bees to forage and identify the
target source. There are several embodiments of the feeding/conditioning trays
which present the target odor to the bee during conditioning. Additionally, an
automated feeding controller is useful in the conditioning method.
