Nurse Bee Activity

[gwt_uk]

Hello all,

What do bees do in a hive with no brood to look after? i.e. when they are waiting on a Virgin queen to be mated and start laying.

Do they all take to foraging duties?

Thanks

 

[BugsInABox]

Hello all,

What do bees do in a hive with no brood to look after? i.e. when they are waiting on a Virgin queen to be mated and start laying.

Do they all take to foraging duties?

Thanks

I think I've read that contrary to the idea of the busy bee a lot of them do spend a lot of time just hanging aroiund - almost in a semi coma. But no I dont think they become foragers just becuase they have no hive duties; it seems the changes thorugh the various duties are related to physiological and anatomical changes as the bee ages.

 

[JamezF]

Hello all,

What do bees do in a hive with no brood to look after? i.e. when they are waiting on a Virgin queen to be mated and start laying.

Do they all take to foraging duties?

I wouldn't have thought so. Foraging bees can go back to being house bees, but the impression I have is that it's a bit of a compromise because (if I recall correctly) they're not as good at producing brood food, for example. As far as I recall the hypopharyngeal glands atrophy in foragers, and whilst that's reversible to a degree it's not an ideal solution.

I'd therefore guess that house bees pretty much carry on being house bees until such time as the new queen starts laying, though perhaps that behaviour might be modified if insufficient food is bring brought in by the existing foragers.

If the colony is undergoing supercedure or is the remnant after a prime swarm has left then perhaps there will be brood that still need looking after anyhow. In a swarm there will presumably be plenty of comb-building to be done, so it may be that the only time when there's a significant period where the house bees have little to do when a virgin queen is present is if she's an emergency queen.

James

 

[gwt_uk]

I wouldn't have thought so. Foraging bees can go back to being house bees, but the impression I have is that it's a bit of a compromise because (if I recall correctly) they're not as good at producing brood food, for example. As far as I recall the hypopharyngeal glands atrophy in foragers, and whilst that's reversible to a degree it's not an ideal solution.

I'd therefore guess that house bees pretty much carry on being house bees until such time as the new queen starts laying, though perhaps that behaviour might be modified if insufficient food is bring brought in by the existing foragers.

If the colony is undergoing supercedure or is the remnant after a prime swarm has left then perhaps there will be brood that still need looking after anyhow. In a swarm there will presumably be plenty of comb-building to be done, so it may be that the only time when there's a significant period where the house bees have little to do when a virgin queen is present is if she's an emergency queen.

James

Thank you

 

[Erichalfbee]

It’s using up the hypo pharyngeal gland feeding larvae that transitions the bee to forager via guard and it’s foraging that wears the bee out. If there’s no brood she sits around twiddling her antennae. Bees do sleep a lot. Foragers especially. When there’s a flow on you can see bees shaking others awake to join the forager force