Let's Talk Pheromones.....and Dancing!

The more we learn about bees, the more fascinated we become. Let's talk pheromones! They are chemical scents produced to trigger behavioral responses from members of the same species. For honey bees, pheromones are the glue that holds the colony together. They let the entire hive know the queen is alive and well, stimulate worker bees in their wide and varied activities (foraging, brood rearing, fanning, etc), regulate drone (male bee) production, help guide foragers back home, produce an alarm to signal intruders, and allow worker bees to recognize the brood's gender, stage of development, and feeding needs. One book suggests there are many pheromones in a bee's life yet to be discovered!

In bee school, Erin and I heard a lot about being odor-neutral....bathing, as well as avoiding using scented shampoos, lotions, etc. while working the bees. It was Erin who realized one day: it's not that the bees are simply finicky. If we were to visit the hives with any strong scent, we would overpower their main system of communication and interfere with all the activities I've just described! What creature wouldn't become upset and reactionary??

I read an article about a follow-up training for beekeepers in Ghana. Because of the intense heat, strong odors became an issue. They were taught to bathe or smoke themselves before opening the hives, wear protective clothing, scour their skin and clothing with cassava leaves, and to work the bees at night during cooler temperatures. Which is a beautiful example of how interconnection works, all the various elements influencing one another so that beekeeping in Ghana is slightly different than beekeeping in the southern US. If you want to know the truth, I don't even know what cassava leaves belong to--a tree?

We want to also mention another important mode of communication for honey bees: dancing! When foraging bees return to the hive, there are "dances" they perform to share information about sources of necter, pollen, or water. Two such dances are the round dance, and the waggle dance (I was sounding so scientific until just now), and we have seen both on our flight deck! The round dance is used to describe a source within a 100 meter radius of the hive. The waggle dance is performed for sources beyond 100 meters. The dancing conveys important information, as well as exciting the waiting forager bees, and pausing to give them a taste of the goodies!

Thank you to all who have been reading this blog and supporting our learning process!