In my last post about lab bees, I laid down some essentials about how to care for a hive during winter, and how annoying bee poop is. I also complained that the bees were rather lazy that day. Well, they weren't today! Probably because I was lazy and took care of them around noon instead of in the morning.
After placing the re-pulverized pollen next to the hive, a single bee noticed it and started rubbing it everywhere.
The bee flies back into the hive, to pass on the information via a dance, that indicates distance and direction. Of course, the animal also smells like food1. Pulverized pollen smells ... interesting. Slightly sweet I'd say.
In nature, the food source would, of course, not be located this close, and certainly not in that amount. But what do the bees care? At least they're not required to use landmarks for orientation, as they usually would.2
© Suesa
Soon, more bees started to join. You can see the collecting behavior. The pollen is caught by little hairs on their hind legs, which allows the bees to transport it inside. There, it serves as a food source, together with nectar and honey, at least for the adult worker bees.3
© Suesa
This hive wasn't very lively, especially compared to the second hive in the room.
Why? Well, the second hive is newer, and the bees there are breeding. So there's a lot more bees to feed, and a lot more bees that can collect pollen!
In fact, just the pheromones produced by the brood ( = bee babies) already stimulate the worker bees to collect more pollen4! Smart adaption, really smart.
I filmed the collecting bees for a bit.
© Suesa
As you can see, many of the tiny animals swarm the pollen and fly in and out of the hive.
During filming, I had to keep the net open, which prevents the bees from escaping into the greenhouse (and eventually outside, where they'd freeze and die), which left my phone (and fingers) exposed to potential angry bees.
Luckily, I wasn't stung. I just experienced the shock of my life, when a huge shadow suddenly crawled across the camera ...
© Suesa
Yes, that's a bee. I almost dropped my phone.
One thing that the GIFs can't properly portray is the sheer noise the bees make. But hey, what are videos for?
To me, it sounds a little bit like a horror movie.
Then again, if the bees rise up against us one day, we probably deserved it.
References:
1 Gould, James L. (1974), "Honey bee communication", Nature 252, 300-301
3 Haydak, Mykola H. (1970), "Honey Bee Nutrition", Annual Review of Entomology, Vol 15, pp 143-156
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