How alarms work in bees
In the warm season, in good weather, even in a time-free period, throughout the day a small part of the flying bees of the family is always in flight in search of sources of bribes: nectar and pollen. Sometimes these bees are called bee-scouts. Guided by their eyesight and sense of smell, they “examine” the families of thousands of hectares close to the shelter, and if they find food, they take it. After that they rise into the air, for a while they swirl, as if they are considering the source of food from the flight, acquire a conditioned reflex to the location of the food, then fly to the hive.
Quite often in a beehive the bee’s food is not immediately deposited in cells or transferred to other bees. A significant number of bees brought to the hive feed, in their own way “report”, more accurately signal, to other bees in the hive, about a bribe. It has now been established that a part of the bee-fed feeds “informs” the distance and direction to the source of the feed to other bees by means of peculiar movements called “dances” of the bees.
“Dances” of bees can be easily observed in every family during the presence of a bribe: “dancing” bees do not stop their movements even on the frame taken out of the beehive.
If you look at the “dancing” bees, you can see that these “dances” are not the same. One of them, the so-called circular, when the bees, making movements by the belly, move on the honeycomb as if in a small circle; other “dances” are more complex: the way the bee moves, producing this “dance”, resembles a small eight, with a fairly pronounced straight run in its central part. These “dances” are called wagging.
If the food is located near the hive, no more than 100 m away, then all the bees that brought food to the hive perform a
“Direct runs of” wagging “dance” are especially important. The farther away from the hive the source of the bribe is, the longer the “direct runs” of the wagging “dance”, the more belly the belly makes a “dancing” bee during one such run. The direction of “direct run” is also important. It reflects the direction to the source of the food.
The flying bees, among which the bee that brought food, produces “dances”, are excited, follow it, try to touch it with antennae, etc. Having produced the “dance” in one place, the bee continues it in another place of the nest, as if ” “More and more bees are gathering food from the source of the bribe they found.
Then she passes it to other bees, and she again flies there for food. By this time, many other flying bees take food here, to which she “danced” signaled his whereabouts. The part of the bees that brought food to the hive repeats the corresponding “dances”, and it takes a little time until the direction to the stern and the distance from it, that is the location of the food found by one bee, will become known to the whole family.
Thus, bees, having a well developed nervous system, are not only capable of acquiring skills, conditioned reflexes, but are also able to transmit them to a significant extent to other bees and to perceive from them by means of a certain “signaling” (for example, “dances”).
It must be assumed that the “alarm” in the bee family is produced not only by “dances”, but also by sounds, by smell, by touching the antennae. However much in this area remains while unknown.
Bees, flying out for the first time in the field, work slowly and uncertainly on flowers: they do not yet have the skill. Over time, when the bees have a firmer bond between the color and the shape of the flower from which they take nectar, their work improves.
Bees with more confidence fly to where they first found bribes, and sit down on those flowers that have already given them prey. There they will fly daily, until these flowers cease to allocate nectar. Now it is revealed that bees on the same day, but at different times, visit different plants.
After the cessation of the separation of nectar by the honey beans to which the bees flew, they sit for some time in the hive: they have no desire to immediately switch to other types of flowers. They acquired a conditioned reflex to certain sources of bribes and therefore periodically visit them again, paying little attention to other plants.
However, in this respect, different bee families behave differently. Some families switch much faster than others to the use of new honey plants. Their gatherers, not finding nectar in the same place, try to find it in other places. Having found a new source of bribe, they with the help of “dances” inform (signal) about it to all bees of the hive.
In order for the family to collect a lot of honey, there must be possibly more flying bees in it.
One bee can at once bring 20-30, rarely 50-60 mg of nectar. To do this, it must fly through many colors. It is believed that in order to collect 1 kg of honey, the bee must fly around the flowers: acacia – 2 million, sainfoin – 5 million, red clover – 7.5 million. Good weather favors the release of nectar and the flight of bees. For example, in wet, warm and quiet weather, the release of nectar is enhanced, and when dry, heat and dry winds completely ceases. Strong wind shortens the flight. The more abundant the bribes, the more energetic the bees work. In a strong family, the flight of bees can reach 500-600 pieces per minute.
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