6.21 Swarming Flashcards
What are the 3 stages of swarm selection of a new nest?
Information Accumulation –>Decision Making –> Departure and Moving
Why is the bivoack stage of a swarm important?
This is when they are their own cogniative entity
What pheremone compoents are important for the swarm initally?
9-ODA attracts the bees to the queen and 9-HDA helps to stablise the cluster
How do nest scouts measure the volume of new sites?
They will walk around the inside and also confuct short flights from wall to wall
What glands are used to mark the new potential nest sites?
Nasanov and footprint pheremones
How do nest scouts communciate their fidnings?
Waggle dances. The level of how good the nest is will result in her dance having a longer duation
Compare the average duration of foraging waggle dances with nest selection waggle dances?
Waggle dances can last 15-30 minutes for nest site slection but only 1-2 mins for foraging
What is the importance of the first stage of swarming?
The information accumulation phase allows as many alternatives as psossible to be found. The swarm employs lots of individuals to find options.
What are the key considerations when making a nest site slection decision?
It needs to be mae accuratly to avoid a poor choice that could result in the colonys demise but also speedily so they aren’t hanging around for ages
What are the 6 key nest site properites?
• Small entrance area (less than 15cm2) = easier to defend
• Higher off the ground (2-5m) = avoided by bears and predators
• Position of entrance at the bottom = minimises heat loss from convection
• Preexisting combs = saves energy on building, a sign it is survivable
• South facing entrance = warms up and snow free mostly
• Medium cavity volume (40 litres) = too small and can’t store enough, too big and they may not fill it and cannot swarm
What are the nest site scouts not worried about?
They do not worry about dryness or dampness as this can be fixed with the propolis envelope.
Why is the distance from the parent colony a compromise for a swarm?
Too close and they will be competing for resources, too far away and they will use
What it is the difference between a quorum and consensus?
A quroum is where enough individuals agree, a consensus is where they all agree.
What are the benfits of quroum decision making?
It allows for a number of indivudals to have assessed the nest site (so we know it is a good one) but doesn’t take the same amount of time that a consenus would. Helps when there are two good options
What happens as a decision threshold is met on the swarm surfaace?
The mantle temperature increases. Piping occurrence and swarm temeprature rise together. Worker piping gets them ready to take off whilst the buzz run acts as the “lets go singal”
What temeprature do the bees in a swarm need to be at to take off
35 celcius
What percentage of the swarm know the destination?
0.05
How do the nest site scouts direct the swarm to the new nest?
They will streak above the swarm and then fly slower underneath it backwards. Imagine a conveyor belt. They only produce nasnov pheremone at the entrnace rather than when flying.
What do the bees do constantly whilst the swarm moves to the new nest?
They are checing the queen is present
How fast and how far will swarms travel?
top speeds o 8km hr with main distances of 1km
What does a newly arrived swarm focus on?
Building worker cells and then focuses on drones later
What are the 3 ways a colony can focus its resources on?
Survival, growth or reproduction
Why is the probability of survial for the virign queen in the hive greater than the old queen with the swarm?
There has been a brood break for varroa control, plenty of stores and an energetic saving of prebuilt comb.
What did Tom seeley find the probability of swarms and the parent colony surviving to be?
New colony was 0.23 whilst parent colony at 0.81
What was Tom Seeleys PhD looking at?
He looked at wild nest charactersitics by cutting them down
What did Tom Seeley do in 1975?
He visited Appledore island and made the bees choose nest bait hives that he varied in design. He found nest inspectors walk around the insie of the cavity and also did short flights inside.
What did Tom Seeley find out in the 1970s
He found that 9-ODA was what ensures the swarm knows the queen is present. He painted workers in a swarm with 9-ODA and trapped the queen and the swarm left without her.
What did Tom Seeley do in 2002?
He set up two nest boxes and one swarm on Appledore island and found that there were nest site scouts in both boxes.
What did Tom Seeley do in 2004?
He fpainted Nasanov glands shut on the nest scouts so they could not release Nasanov pheremone/ The swarm went in the right directon but overshoot.
What did Tom Seeley do in 2006?
He videod swarms from different angles and saw the bees at the top were flying fastest
Explain the positive and negative feedbacks in swarms?
There is excitation of workers dancing for indivudal sites and this is a positive feedback. There is negative feedback where nest site scouts get recuited to opposing sites
