Bees alternate air conditioning in the nest

The adjustment of temperature in the honeycomb is done by a strict division of labor. Besides the bee-keeping bees, there are always those that work to fan the larvae when the temperature in the nest increases too high.

The bees warm and cool their nests to ensure that the larvae are incubated at the right temperature - between 28 ° C and 32 ° C. When the temperature becomes too hot, they use cool wings to fan. When it is too cold, the bee vibrates its wing muscles to transfer heat to the abdomen - the place where the hole is exposed to the larvae.

A herd of bees.
(Photo: treknature)

"You can see them shuddering for heat transfer," said Sean O'Donnell, a bee expert at the University of Washington.

O'Donnell and colleagues filmed three Bombus huntii bees. They increased the temperature around the nest to 38.6 ° C and then reduced it to 10.3 ° C. When the surrounding air became too hot, the back-turning bee bees backed away to make room for the others to cool the larvae. Conversely, when the temperature drops, the brooding bees will increase the incubation time.

The researchers took some of the bees to hatch elsewhere. They believe that bees who are in charge of fans will replace the eggs of the hatchlings. But reality does not turn out that way. The cool bees were not crawling to the holes containing the larvae. Instead, within 24 hours after the bees had hatched, their "colleagues" would crawl to the vacant holes. To compensate for lost time, they vibrate the wing muscles to transfer heat to the abdomen for longer periods.

"In the past, it was thought that a worker in a bee colony could take on the job of another. But this study shows that there is a specialization of high-level labor among bees" , O Donnell said.

Viet Linh