Buzz
As honeybees flit from one flower to another, they herald the onset of spring. They are both celebrated as nature’s marvels and dismissed as pesky intruders. While people with allergies seek to avoid these airborne creatures, scientists actively breed and study them for their fascinating traits. Whether admired or avoided, there’s more to these little creatures than meets the eye when simply observed in the wild.
10. Cannibalism
The diet of a honeybee is relatively simple—pollen for the larvae, nectar for the drones and worker bees, and when resources run low? They resort to cannibalism. In times of scarcity, honeybees are known to consume their hive mates and larvae. This practice serves as an evolutionary mechanism to conserve the older, more valuable population by eliminating the youngest larvae and eggs. Additionally, this cannibalistic act enriches the bees’ food supply with much-needed protein. However, honeybees also engage in cannibalism when they detect the presence of 'diploid' or false males. During their larval stage, these impostors are either stung to death by the workers or eaten while being nursed.
9. Undertakers and Bouncers
Bee colonies are astonishingly efficient, but contrary to what many believe, the hive's members are not mindless automatons—except, of course, for the actual drones, who serve one singular purpose. The worker bees, however, take on multiple tasks. When a bee dies inside the colony, worker bees act as 'undertakers,' removing the deceased from the hive. In addition to this role, these diligent bees also serve as bouncers, expelling the sick and any surplus males during times of scarcity.
They are able to recognize sick bees by their scent and swiftly remove them from the nest. Deceased bees are carried outside, away from the honey and larvae. Groups of bees are dedicated to cleaning the hive and keeping it in pristine condition. True to their tidiness, bees do not defecate inside their hive—rather, they relieve themselves while in mid-flight, creating a phenomenon known as 'yellow rain' that has startled unprepared 'targets' in the past.
8. Amazing Perception
Bees possess a highly refined set of senses that support their daily activities. The honeybee can distinguish differences between images in just 1/300th of a second, while humans are only capable of perceiving differences in 1/50th of a second. This means that while we experience television images as fluid, a honeybee can pick out each individual frame. Their sense of smell is also exceptionally sharp. Bees are naturally drawn to specific flowers to aid in pollination, but this attraction also serves as a form of identification and as a 'mating call.' Each bee colony carries its own distinctive scent, which hive members use to recognize one another. When a queen leaves to establish a new colony, her pheromones attract drones to accompany her on her journey.
7. Honeybees Can't See Red
Honeybees have five eyes, which might suggest that their vision is superior to that of other creatures, but that's not exactly the case. They possess two large eyes on either side of their heads, and three smaller eyes on the center of their heads, which help them navigate while flying. Despite having five eyes, bees are capable of seeing very few colors.
Experts are not completely unified in their views on which colors bees can see, but the general agreement is that their vision largely falls within the blue-green spectrum, with some ability to perceive oranges and yellows. This range spans the light spectrum of 300–650 nanometers—humans, in contrast, see between 400–800 nanometers—and it excludes red entirely. Bees likely perceive red as black. An incredible feature that compensates for their limited color range? Bees can see ultraviolet light, which is invisible to humans. They use this spectrum, most concentrated in the center of flowers, to navigate to their targets. Without ultraviolet light, bees lose interest in foraging unless they are driven by hunger.
6. Mating Rituals
The mating rituals of bees are harsh, particularly for the males, whose fate involves emasculation and death. Drone bees, whose only role is to mate with the queen, lose their endophallus during mating, which remains inside the queen. This mechanism is thought to ensure successful reproduction by sealing the sperm inside the queen and preventing additional mating. However, as soon as the next drone approaches, it removes the previous male's reproductive organ and continues the fertilization process, making the effort pointless for many drones. The males' abdomens are torn open, leading to their quick demise. Even if they survive, wounded drones are cast out of the hive after fulfilling their duty. The queen retains the sperm and never mates again.
(Note: The bees shown in the image are not actually mating; they are two worker bees. The queen bee is much larger.)
5. Facial Recognition
If you've ever had the feeling that a bee was specifically after you, chasing you, you might have been correct—honeybees are capable of recognizing individual faces. What's even more fascinating is that they use the same method humans do to achieve this. Bees identify groups of lines and shapes as patterns, a process called configural processing. They can also retain this pattern for future reference. In experiments where bees were provided with food sources linked to images of faces and bowls of water associated with non-facial objects, biologists observed the bees learning to identify the faces with remarkable accuracy. Over time, they were able to distinguish between simple dot-and-slash faces and more detailed photographic ones.
4. Explosives
Honeybees can even be harnessed to enhance homeland security. Their extraordinarily sensitive receptors, capable of detecting even the faintest trace of pollen across vast areas, can be trained to search for other substances. Security agencies have explored the idea of exposing bees to chemical scents linked to bomb production and conditioning them to swarm when these scents are detected. Tiny tracking devices are attached to the bees, making it easier to locate the swarm in wide-open spaces. Small cameras are also used to monitor the bees' proboscis movements, as they anticipate a sugar water reward upon detecting the target compound.
3. Math Skills
Anyone who has looked at a honeycomb can likely deduce that honeybees are remarkable mathematicians. In fact, famous minds like Galileo Galilei often marveled at how efficiently these tiny creatures can create precise angles, such as those found in the hexagonal honeycomb pattern. It's been discovered that wild honeycombs start as round shapes—the natural form of the bee's body—and are then heated during formation. This heat causes the walls to melt and mold into the most efficient structural shape for their orientation, which turns out to be a hexagon.
This doesn't imply that bees lack mathematical prowess; rather, their abilities show up in ways you might not expect. Honeybees are natural explorers, driven by the need to forage for food and return to the hive. A worker honeybee is an expert at navigation and calculation. When returning to the hive, the bee performs a complex dance to inform others of the food's location. Subtle variations in the dance reveal details about the distance, the angle of flight in relation to the sun, and even the abundance of the food source. A more vigorous dance indicates an abundant supply, while a more subdued one signals a smaller amount.
2. Apitherapy
An intriguing use for honeybees comes from the realm of multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment. Some MS patients are undergoing a practice called apitherapy, where honeybees sting their damaged nerves to promote stimulation and healing. Patients also consume propolis (the sticky substance bees use to seal their hives), raw honey (unfiltered and still containing beeswax and propolis), and royal jelly (the nutritious food bees produce for larvae) to maximize the potential benefits. While the clinical effectiveness of this treatment remains unproven, thousands of patients undergo it each year, with many reporting significant improvements in their symptoms.
1. Visual Learning
One might assume that since the worker bee’s sole purpose is to produce honey, it would be an innate skill. However, this is not the case. Honeybees are born with no knowledge of honey-making. Instead, they must learn from older, more experienced bees. Studies show that younger bees learn by observing their seniors, noting which flowers the experienced bees frequent, and following their lead. Time is of the essence for these younger bees, as the older foragers’ wings are worn out from extensive flight. As the older bees age, they are gradually reassigned to less physically demanding tasks like nursing and guarding the hive, conserving their wings for emergencies.
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Dead bee
