Who would have thought that the hive had room for social mobility?

[Karim Sahli]

Hey folks,

Check out this little New York Times movie.

Scientists are using a new method to track the bees and figure out their job in the hive; it’s pretty simple yet very neat.

And a funny detail: at one point the beekeeper is holding a top box with a large comb attached to it. It’s the result of a mistake (that I also recently made) when you forgot to put back frames in the hive.

[susan rudnicki]

YES! this has already been written about in the wonderful book “The Buzz About Bees, Biology of a Super-organism” by Jurgen Tautz. I highly recommend all beeks read it, as so many organizational features of bee society are well explained and supported with photos. This will expand on the subjects brought up in the little film

1) Bees roles in the hive are plastic—when more nurse bees may be needed, other bees such as foragers may be recruited to do that job.
2) The notion of the “busy bee” being a tireless worker is not the same for all bees. Some do 10 flights a day, but some are documented doing only 3 flights a day!

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