Bee Cognition

Question 1

How do insects survive during the winter?

Answer 1

Bees survive as adults through colonies

Question 2

How do honeybees survive the winter?

Answer 2

• heat is 98 degrees Fahrenheit in the bees’ hive
• everybody gets their turn with warmth on the inside, and coldness on the outside
• they flex their wing muscles for the production of heat
• often, they can kill a wasp by flexing their muscles, cooking the wasp alive
• they get the energy to do this through honey

Question 3

Describe the honeybee’s dream home

Answer 3

• they value certain things in their home since it helps them survive
• facing the south, within north America
  
  • sunniest, warmest spot
  • entrance hole facing the south
    
    • near warm for more energy
    • if its too big, then it gets too cold
    • if its too small, then they can’t get out of the door
• want them high off the ground to keep away from predators
  
  • 20-30ft up in the tree
• do not care if they are holes
  
  • they usually end up fixing the holes with wax
• internal cavity needs to be at least 30L
  
  • if its too big its fine
  • if its too small, they cannot create enough honey and die
• send out scouter bees to go look for houses
  
  • other bees will actually go and verify the report of the scouter bee
  • if 2/3 of scouter bees are at the site, majority will follow

Question 4

How do bees communicate?

Answer 4

• usually communicate through dancing
• waggle dance: (distance, direction, & desirability)
• essentially waggle run back and waggle some more
• it tells the distance to the place, essentially the waggle
• they can tell the direction of the hive in direction of hive in direction of the sun outside the hive
• describes the direction they’re waggling in in relation to up
• they increase their waggle runs to for more desirability
• if it is a great location, they will do their waggle dance with more intensity
• more runs and more waggles
• to measure volume, they do little hops and take the average mean of their flight

Question 5

Why do bees swarms

Answer 5

-due to the presence of the queen bee
– The bees know the queen exist due to the presence of her pheromone every time the touch the queen; it transfers to other bees
- it gets diluted after so many bees (10,000)
- this causes the worker beets to start making new queen bees thinking the old queen is dead
- the queens in the back of the hive start maturing, when she is about to emerge she will flex her muscles against the cell which causes a reverberating sound throughout the whole colony that is basically a threat
- the only queen can either leave or kill the new queen
- swarm, taking the 1/3 of the colony
- often done when there is too many in the hive
- if they find a new home, they will probably die

Question 6

Do honeybee chose the best site?

Answer 6

A researcher set out different forms of a bee’s house, 80% of the time, the bee will choose the best site to live in