Swarming --- It is that time of the year again

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
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Thanks for the lengthy explanation :slight_smile:

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Yesterday I watched, enthralled, as a massive bumblebee went to my pink and alba bleeding hearts (dicentra) and poked the top of each blossom (called a locket) in two places to suck out the nectar. She seemed to know just where to poke in, because she did it to each flower in the same spot, right at the curved top of the heart.

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I keep reading the title as " Swearing — It is that time of the year again".

Oh f**k, I’ve been stung by a bee again!

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Bumblebees keep two secrets 
and a massive difference with honeybees

(1) they ‘resonate’ - they produce very low frequencies, to dislodge pollen from specific flowers; this is an incredible nature adaptation – the pollen cannot be physically reach by the insects, and can only ‘drop’ to be collected by the right frequency. The insect gets the pollen (as it is used as protein to feed the pupi), and the flower makes sure that part of that pollen is moved to other flowers of the same class. Not all bees can resonate 

(2) ask any engineer how can bumblebees fly
 they defy aeronautics

and

bumblebees also produce honey! (they also live in colonies, but much much smaller than hony bees), and it is protected

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sorry, i get carried away
 sigh

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I truly appreciated it!

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Keep going please!

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A few years ago I took a photo of a sign that I found interesting. It might even fit the thread “Only in Switzerland”.

The text in English (google-translated):
"Dear Hikers

Since targeted mating with bees is not as easy as with cows, there are topographically isolated locations like this where purebred mating is possible. We ask you not to enter the area between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. This could hinder a returning queen.

We thank you for your consideration.

The Hinterrheintal Beekeepers’ Association"

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I read somewhere that unlike birds and aircraft where air above the wing is faster than under it, BB‘s fly more like helicopters.

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This is a really enjoyable thread, I have learnt so much, but this notice
 “Rassenreine Paarung” sounds like a Nazi concern. I found lots of information on the interaction of honeybees and wild bee populations

and, as you would expect, evidence that the bees go in for a bit of non Rassenrein hanky panky:

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@TinyK this is a veeery interesting (and controversial) post
 :open_mouth: 
 first of all, bees mate at a height of 6 - 7 m, and, in areas which are difficult to spot to humans (unless you have the queen bee (or some drones) tagged with RFID. The drones find the queen thanks to the trail of pheromone that she leaves behind. It is true that, for some reason the ‘mating areas’ hold year on year, but at that height, difficult for humans to even notice it
unless one of the drop-dead-happy drones falls on you after successful intercourse with the Queen bee (you know it, no? the male dies in Ă©xtasis
leaving his gonads inside the female’s body. More on that, later :wink:

yes, be afraid, be very afraid! there are some beekeepers associations where members should buy their queens only through these ‘controlled’ breeders, in an attempt to maintain a pure Swiss bee breed. The ‘pure’ Swiss breed is a small, black bee (looks almost like a fly), which is calmer than some other bees, and produces less honey. (For those interested, in Europe, in addition to the swiss race, there are italian, carneolan (=slovenian), russian, iberian, buckfast (=bastards, i.e. mixed), and africanized bees – among others. There are also honeybees without stinger (in south america), and japanese bees (who have different behaviour than european ones). And even if they seem the same, all of them look very different, like human races do.

Personally, I think that indeed this inbreeding damages the genetics and survival prospects on the long run - I hope you guys agree that any type of forced endogamy is contra-natura.

@KiwiSteve, @TinyK in any case, the breeders hope for the best. The Queens do not behave really like a shy virgin when they take off from the hive. They are on a mission. And the mission is to mate with between 15 - 20 (give or take) drones, in the 2 or 3 flights (one per day) that they make. That will be the first and last time that they leave the colony (except for swarming), so let the girls have fun! Why that sudden ninfomanic behavior? That, on the next chapter!!

Yet, meanwhile, what happens to drones when they manage to mate! (there are >1000 drones / Queen bee on average). I think that one image is worth one thousand words
 You can see it here Virgin queen bee fly to mate with drone| bees mating|young virgin queen bee mating (bumble bees mate on land, not flying!)

Mesmerizing, isn’t it?

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Sheeesh! What do you call a bee orgy then?
A Borgy, a beebang, a stingerring?

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Thanks. Now I know that, which my mum did not tell me when I was a kid, what about the birds?

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These little gems are all over the grape hyacinths now. The dark-edged bee-fly looks at first glance like a bee, but its flight/hover pattern is very different. The are so fuzzy and cute, but unfortunately a foe to the solitary bees that are so prevalent here.

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:smiley: oh man
where should I start :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: 
 but, there is still more to the bee truculent stories! fratricide, eugenesis, magnicide, gender-cide (this last one I don’t know if it exists..)

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I come here everyday to check whether you already posted one of the stories mentioned above.

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Oh, BEEEEES! Just skim read this and thought you were talking about the British royal family.

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ok, ok! sooooo. Game of Thrones part I: the Queenmother (so we please also @Slammer ) leaves with half of the court to the new dwelling, leaving behind the other half of the court (the youngest bees), to serve and nurture the pupii and the future queen. And she leaves behind several queen-bee cells, which will be born usually in 6 - 7 days. But there are several cells, and there can be only one queen!. When the Queens are being born, they peep – a ‘call’ that is clearly audible in the whole beehive. As the first Queen is born, after 3 - 4 minutes, during which she is attended by bees, to ‘dry herself’, she starts scouting the brood chamber, looking for other queen cells. And when she finds one, she stings the stillborn to death through the wax of the cell. If she encounters another Queen, because she missed the cell, they will wrestle, like in the WWE, until the strongest kills the other queenbee. So much for sisterhood!
So, even if the queen mother has left behind various ‘princesses’, only one will become the Queen, and the others will be mercilessly stung to death. Wait, where have I seen that before? ah yes
 some royal families


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and, for TinyK, the posting of the day, on oddities of bees and nature
 did you that a honeybee colony is the ultimate matriarchy?

  1. There is no King, the Queen rules alone.
  2. In spring, the Queen lays two types of eggs; diploid (egg+sperm) for female bees (working or princesses), and haploid (egg alone), for drones (=males).
  3. In summer & autumn the Queen lays only diploid eggs, i.e. she only bores female bees
  4. at the end of autumn (measured by the equinox) the female bees start kicking out (physically) the drones from the colonies; for about 6 months, the colony is formed only by female bees.
  5. the drones have one function – reproduction. They do not take any responsibility at the hive; they are 3 times bigger than the females (the females need to build special cells for them!), but they cannot defend the hive, because they don’t have a stinger. They cannot feed themselves – i.e. they cannot collect nectar, (because of the structure of their stomach), they can only eat honey provided by female bees. And definitely, they don’t take care of the household chores :slight_smile: In spanish, the term ‘Zangano’ (=drone) is also applied to men who are house-useless :smiley:
  6. The life of the drones, (up to 6 months) can be much longer than the one of the female bees (spring /summer bees: 6 weeks)
if the drone is NOT successful on their main goal: impregnate a queen on her honeymoon flight. If he is successful
well, then he will die on extasis (see video on previous posting)

and
to prove that this is Game of Thrones

Drones have a mother and a grandfather. But they don’t have a father. How cool is that! :wink:

and tomorrow
more on game of thrones – incest and the likes
What happens if the Queen is impregnated by a drone made by her own mother?

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Holy moley, Disney‘s Bee Movie got a dark twist.

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