Heater Bees

[beeno]

Some of you may be interested in this.

www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7435950/Honey-bees-secret-world-of-heat-revealed.html

 

[pargyle]

Some of you may be interested in this.

www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7435950/Honey-bees-secret-world-of-heat-revealed.html

Good grief ...this is a bombshell .. if it's actually RIGHT then virtually every bee book would need to be re-written - it completely challenges all the previously stated 'progression' of bee life where they start off as cleaner bees and end up as foragers ...

I don't get the bit about the bees leaving empty cells in brood areas as my queen's laying pattern last year was almost wall to wall brood ... the only time there were empty cells was as the bees hatched out and the cleaner bees went in to polish them.

Pity it's that plonker Richard Hammond doing the programme ... he irritates me to distraction ..

 

[Dishmop]

Would be interesting to know if they discovered that beeing a heater bee is the only function they have during their life cycle..........or something they do for two days and then pass the job down the line......

 

[itma]

...
Pity it's that plonker Richard Hammond doing the programme ... he irritates me to distraction ..

Link was to a 2010 article plugging the programme! (you are safe, it is long since gone ...)

The interesting thing is the link to Tautz's website at the end
http://www.hobos.de/en/interested/about-hobos/portrait.html

 

[DanBee]

I don't recall that anyone else has verified Tautz's findings and conclusions. Thus it remains an hypothesis, albeit with compelling video footage.

Let us not forget cold fusion.

 

[Swarm]

Packham did a bit on this in his last series.

 

[DanBee]

Packham did a bit on this in his last series.

Was this using Tautz as the source also?

 

[pargyle]

Link was to a 2010 article plugging the programme! (you are safe, it is long since gone ...)

The interesting thing is the link to Tautz's website at the end
http://www.hobos.de/en/interested/about-hobos/portrait.html

Thank goodness for small mercies !! Didn't realise it was an old article ... stupid Telegraph Website puts the current date at the top of everything !! Pity OP didn't pick up on it either ...

So ... I've heard of Jurgen Tautz ... not read his book ...I've just had a look at the above website and there's nowhere on there that I can find anything about 'heater bees' ... so, is it something that the Teleguff or Hammond's programme got completely the wrong end of the stick .. or was it something that Tautz thought was happening and then found out it didn't ? Or is it something that DOES happen but nobody talks about ???

 

[itma]

I don't think there is anything controversial about the idea of "heater bees" plugging into empty cells in the brood pattern. Beyond that, I think its best to call it an hypothesis.

 

[beeno]

Hi all,
New scientific insights
The volume of data enables the acquisition
of entirely new observations and measurements
related to the hive. One example is
the discovery of “heat peaks” in winter
2012. A heat peak is a key peak value that
can be achieved by heating of the winter
cluster. Temperature readings from HOBOS
provided the first documentary evidence
that, from 28 January 2012, specialised
“ heater bees” were deployed at
multi-day intervals to heat the cluster from
28 °C to 30 °C over an entire day, before
letting the cluster cool down again.

 

[Cazza]

I don't get the bit about the bees leaving empty cells in brood areas as my queen's laying pattern last year was almost wall to wall brood ... the only time there were empty cells was as the bees hatched out and the cleaner bees went in to polish them.
QUOTE]

I have certainly observed a few empty cells which I had assumed were spaces for heater bees after I read the Tautz book.
Cazza

 

[busybee53]

Saw the original programme. Remember they used a thermal imaging camera and the heater bees appeared to glow green. I don't remember any explanation saying that the progression from house bee to forager was not true.

Wouldn't mind looking at the programme again, despite Mr.Hammond.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I think this was discussed ad nauseum on here a while ago - sounds like a load of old tosh to me, you telling me that in a community like the honeybee's that some workers just mooch around doing nothing until it gets a bit chilly? and how did he know they were one of a troop of specialist heater bees, not just some bees who went and did a bit of heating? as busybee says, it's just a job they progress through like any other. it has never been said that every bee work as mortuary bees either

 

[JohnyP]

Sounds like an early April fools

 

[drstitson]

"Sounds like an early April fools"

Just 4 years late!!!!


seriously though my initial thoughts back at the time was that this phenomenon (heater bees occupying the free cells in the brood) might be a possible explanation of why the bee sex determining mechanism has evolved just how it has - or at least explain the number of sex alleles.

 

[roche]

I would say - read the book. It is fascinating, and gives a better, well rounded explanation; more than can be achieved on TV.

 

[bontbee]

I would say - read the book. It is fascinating, and gives a better, well rounded explanation; more than can be achieved on TV.

I agree, I have read the book but it was a while ago and, unfortunately, my memory being what it is and not having the book to hand, I can't remember the details. I don't recall that it was as black and white as the press article at the time suggested.

IMO it wouldn't make sense for individuals in a bee colony to be restricted to one particular type of task. The beauty of the colony is its flexibility and adaptability as conditions / environment demand. Observations reported by Lindauer (not sure if it was his work or if he was reporting someone else's) charted many different activities in one twelve hours session in the life of an eight day old bee. These included, (please bear in my I am relying on, albeit more recent, memory here....) feeding young larvae, feeding old larvae, wax building, cell sealing, cleaning and an awful lot of resting.....

 

[galileo]

The folk selling the Arnia hive monitoring system have a page related to brood nest thermoregulation up on their website. Coincidentally, the email alerting me to it arrived just as I opened this thread.

 

[sunhivebee]

Tautz's book is fantastic. His research has been peer-reviewed extensively and to great acclaim. I would recommend it to anyone. Don't hang around until Danbee deigns to confirm this eminent scientist's findings. Tautz is not a Danbee, quite the opposite, really.

 

[mbc]

Tautz is not a Danbee, quite the opposite, really.

'kick the ball, not the player' and all that. I'm sure Danbee can look after himself, but all the same, IMO the general readership shouldnt have to read this sort of stuff.