GUIDING THEM HOME

If you’re read a couple of these recent blog posts, you may have seen that honeybees often communicate essential information to each other using chemical signals called pheromones. Here’s a case in point.

Yesterday I used a little smoke to calm a grumpy hive (while I gave them back an extracted honey super to clean) . A little later I noticed bees pointing their posteriors out of the entrances (there are 3 on this hive), and fanning their wings energetically to guide their sisters to home and safety. This was likely a response to my smoke since, by intention, it disturbs the equilibrium within the hive for a few minutes.

Look carefully at the static bee for the white band, an exposed gland, at the joint between her lowest plates, (officially the 6th and 7th tergites) one up from her stinger. This is her Nasanov gland, which unsurprisingly produces the Nasanov Pheromone a chemical used as a marker when foraging, swarming or guiding.

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