Friend or foe ?
by Chris, 29 October, 2020, 0 comments
Honey bees face many threats - such viruses, mites and pesticides, but also threats from their own kind - robber bees. When nectar becomes scarce at the end of the summer and into autumn, then bees will seek food wherever they can find it - like honey from other colonies. From the robber bees ‘point of view’, this is simply another form of foraging behaviour. This robbing of honey deprives a colony of an important winter resource.
To limit this behaviour, hives have guard or gatekeeper bees, who ‘inspect’ all arriving bees. But how do they know who is friend and who is foe? Not being able to tell the difference could mean a long and lean winter, with little honey in the hive. Honey bees can recognise members of their community / hive by detecting waxy chemicals present in their exoskeleton (cuticle) known as cuticular hydrocarbons (CHC’s). Read more...
