Bee Behaviors

[Terri Yaki]

The waggle dance is pretty well known as a method of communicating a few different things to the colony but what other behaviors are there that bees partake in?

My mentor showed me how some of them whip the others to work in the morning and get them started. I've noticed that once the sun comes up, it looks like some of them take a brief flight to test current conditions and determine if it's time to get moving or not. Once it reaches about 50F, activity starts to pick up but it's kind of light until it warms up a little more.

What else do they do?

[The15thMember]

Lots of things!  Which is one reason why opening a bee hive is so much fun.    Bees will clean each other, which can look kind of aggressive sometimes.  They will set up fanning lines to move air from deep in the nest to the entrance.  If you ever use any foundationless frames, you'll see bees festooning, where they make a bee chain out of their bodies to build comb.  If you are really focused on communication-based behaviors, there are bees who will walk around and buzz other bees on the back to alert them to the fact that the colony is getting ready to swarm.  Bees who return from foraging trips are not only dancing about what they found, but also handing out samples.  And of course bees are constantly switching up the tasks they are performing based on their age and the current needs of the colony.  I mean, every single task the bees are performing could be considered a behavior really, so the list is basically endless!  Dr. Seeley's work is something you could check out for more information on bee behavior.  Honeybee Democracy of course deals with everything swarming-related, but The Lives of Bees talks about the natural behaviors of colonies in many different situations.   

My mentor showed me how some of them whip the others to work in the morning and get them started.

I've never heard of this.  Could you describe it a little more?

[Terri Yaki]

I've never heard of this.  Could you describe it a little more?

The hive was open and on top of one of the frames there was one bee going around nudging on other bees. According to him, that was a 'get to work' nudge. It was kind of a push from the side and maybe a little wing action but not much. Logically, it coincides with the scouts that I've observed going out early to see if conditions were good enough for work.