WORK IN THE HIVE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23030, 6 May 1938, Page 5

WORK IN THE HIVE

DIVISION OF DUTY TASKS OF YOUNG BEES NECESSITY THE DRIVING FORCE BY lIONKBKE Investigations at the State Experiment Institute of Bee Culture at Dol, Czechoslovakia, have given most interesting results and have shown that when the normal cycle of life of a colony of bees is interrupted, very young bees can undertake duties previously considered to be beyond their power to perform, Under normal conditions, the various kinds of work in the hive are done by bees of fairly definite ages, but in cases of necessity the bees available at the moment work at tasks which ordinarily seem beyond their powers. A report on the investigations says: "A scries of combs ancl brood just ready to emerge were placed in observation hives. These were then kept at the constant temperature of 33 degrees centigrade. When the bees began to emergo they were marked every day at the same hour, with different dyes, and were put into another hive, SO that the age of the bees was known with precision to one day. In 1928 Peterka showed that old bees can do all types of work both inside and outside the hive. Young bees, as we shall see later, are also capable of doing similar types of work. , Carrying Pollen "Because young bees need a certain amount of pollen in their normal development, bees one day old were placed oil a comb without pollen to ascertain in general if young bees could, and at what age, carry pollen into the hive. Bees even! four days old came back with loads in their pollen baskets, and executed the customary dances. "The retiirning bees did not remove the pollen from their legs, because it was eaten by other young bees in the hive, who also cleaned the bodies of the pollen gatherers. The five or six-day-old bees brought nectar in considerable quantities. "Bees three days old will carry out of the hive dead bees and debris, for, on taking the hive- out of the dark constant-temperature room, the three-day-old bees wero observed running on the glass walls of the hive with dead bees or debris in their mandibles and trying to find their way out of the hive. (According to Bosch, the cleaning of the hive is performed by ten to twenty three-day-old bees). Mounting Guard "In our investigation, two-dav-old bees, as a rule, acted as guards on the edges of the combs, guards being ordinarily recognisable by their characteristic position. They usually stand only on the second and third pair of legs, the front logs being lifted a little and bent, as if they are prepared for attack. Tlirec-day-old bees were found acting as guards at the entrance when bees of older ages were not present. "In our observations, bees only a day old were found to act against the robbers. On ono occasion at the time of marking a new group of bees, a robber bee flow in the hive, and the young bees threw themselves upon it in great numbers. Some seized its legs and wings, while others bent their abdomens as if trying to sting. The robber bee, paying no attention to their attack, sucked up honey and cleaned itself, but under the strong attack the robber bee bent its abdomen as a bee which is defending itself. Bees of the second day were observed furiously attacking a robber bee. "To ascertain how soon bees can feed brood, bees not over ono day old were placed on a comb containing brood of various ages. On the second day we saw young bees feeding the older larvae.

"Young bees soon feel the necessity of sealing the brood cells, and in the course of their first day of life as adult insects they sealed all cells where the capping had a little opening. Bees not over three days oid sealed very well and built queen cells when they did not have a queen. In our observations, bees not over one day old were transferred on combs with brood of different ages, and on the fourth day had sealed all the older brood and had built two queen cells over young larvao. The majority of the emerged bees were, however, smaller than normal bees. Bees during the second day produced wax for repairing and fastening their comb at the top."