Why Don't Bees Immediately Flee After a Hive Is Destroyed? It's About Sacrificing Themselves to Save the Queen
For bees, we are all familiar with, in the life of bees, there is always a hint of magic. If we observe carefully, we will find that bees are very intelligent. This process can be seen from the daily life of bees and the division of labor in the bee colony. It can be said that these lives all reveal the intelligence of bees beyond insects.
Perhaps the wisdom of bees is really just instinct, but this instinct is the result of long-evolution. If we delve into the bees, we sometimes find that bees are also clumsy, even facing the threat of death, bees would rather die than live. The simplest example is when we find wild honey.
For rural people, many friends have experienced going up the mountain to find wild honey. Because we are not raising bees, many people going up the mountain to find wild bees are not for the purpose of catching bees to bring home to raise. Instead, it is to be able to take the honey from the bees. In this process, the bee's hive will be completely destroyed. Kind people will restore the hive after taking the honey, and lazy friends will simply take the honey, no matter if the bees are alive or dead.
Perhaps many friends who are looking for wild honey have not noticed one problem, that is, when we destroy a hive so severely that the bees cannot survive, we humans leave, the bees will not leave, even when we destroy the hive, the bees will not collectively escape. Although humans are higher animals, bees cannot compete with humans, but animals have instinct of flight. Bee's wisdom is not as high as human, but bees are always long winged insects, if we destroy the bee's hive, the bees can escape in advance, then the dead bees will be few, but on the contrary, generally when we destroy the bee's hive, bees will not run away in a short time, even if we meet the conditions for bees to escape, the bees will still remain in the hive.
For many friends who are looking for wild honey, perhaps many friends have not noticed that after they take the honey, when did the bees escape? Most of the time it is after a period of time to see, by then the bees are no longer there.
According to Bee's observation, when we completely destroy a hive, the time for bees to leave is 3 days after the hive is destroyed. This is a very special data, and Bee was also puzzled. However, if we look at the bees from a biological perspective, we can easily find the answer. We can look at it from the following aspects:1. Bee's group living habits
2. Bee's behavior when the hive is destroyed
3. Why the hive is completely destroyed and bees still take 3 days to escape
4. What did the bees do before the bee group escaped?
Bee's group living habits
For us looking for wild honey friends, because we are looking for bees are for the purpose of taking honey, when we find a bee's hive, we first open the hive, observe the honeycomb inside is there honey, if there is, we take the honey, if there is not, we generally restore the hive, wait for the next time to take honey.
This information gives us the answer, if we find a bee's hive, decide to destroy this hive, it means this hive has a lot of honey, which is worth spending time to plunder. And a honeycomb has a lot of honey, it means this is a normal bee colony, that is, this bee colony has a complete structure of bees.
For a complete bee colony, their defense mechanism and production mechanism all rely on the group to complete, and a complete bee colony, often has a lot of larvae, and the bee's nestness is often influenced by larvae. Many friends who harvest wild bees will find that when we harvest wild bees, we also harvest bee jelly, such bee colonies are less likely to escape. If we only harvest adult bees, and the bee jelly is discarded, such bee colonies are very easy to escape.
A bee colony often includes bee jelly and honey jelly, some friends when destroying a hive, not only to take honey, but also to take bee jelly, because some people like to eat bee pupa, which is equivalent to when they take honey, the bee colony is left only with bees.
It can be said that when we take honey, the bees will not escape, and bee jelly is one of the reasons, because
A complete bee colony, when they encounter a threat, their first choice is not to evade, but to face, and to overcome difficulties together, and to make the bee colony continue. So when we destroy a hive, the bees will fight fiercely with humans, even if many bees die, they will not collectively escape, of course, the factors that prevent bees from collectively escaping are also the following aspects, we will continue to look.The behavior of bees when the hive is destroyedThis point can be seen from modern beekeeping. When we harvest honey, it is inevitable to damage some bee jelly. If we do not eliminate these damaged bee jelly, but put them back into the hive, then within one night, the bees will repair them. So when the bee colony is destroyed, the bees show three main behaviors.
① Protecting the queen bee: Although the queen bee looks like a laying machine, she is still the root of the bee colony's continuation, so
No matter what operation we do to the bee colony, we can see that many worker bees protect the queen bee when the bee colony faces a threat. This is the most obvious phenomenon we can see.
② Protecting larvae: Larvae are like 'children' in the bee colony, and they are the future of the bee colony. When the bee colony is damaged, in addition to protecting the queen bee, the bees mainly protect the larvae. This can be easily found by us, when a hive is destroyed, the location where the bees cluster is the location of the larvae in the bee colony. Where there are larvae, there are bees covering them. In fact,The development of bee larvae needs a higher temperature, and worker bees do not want the larvae in the bee colony to die. When the bee jelly is exposed, this constant temperature is disrupted, and worker bees will use their bodies to protect these larvae.③ Escape preparation: In fact, what the bees do when the bee colony faces a threat is an unnoticeable work for us, that is, escape preparation. However, the bees' short-term inability to escape means that this is a preventive measure.
We can see this from modern beekeeping. When we harvest honey, it is inevitable to damage some bee jelly. If we do not eliminate these damaged bee jelly, but put them back into the hive, then within one night, the bees will repair them. So when the bee colony is destroyed, the bees show three main behaviors.① Actively recovering: In the bee colony is damaged, the bees will actively recover the bee colony, and try to repair the bee colony. Only this process cannot be carried out, the bees will do the next work.
② Preparing for escape: After the bees fail to recover the bee colony, the bees will do the second work, that is, prepare to escape. The process of preparing to escape, can be said to be carried out synchronously. First, the old bees in the bee colony go out to find new residences. Because this is an emergency, there are often more scout bees in the bee colony. A large number of scout bees look for new homes in the wild.Second, the worker bees limit the feeding of the queen bee, this process can be said to start when the bees cannot save the bee colony. The purpose is to atrophy the queen bee's ovaries and reduce her weight, so that she can fly.③ Escaping: After 2 to 3 days, the queen bee's ovaries have atrophy, and her weight has decreased. At this time, all the bees in the bee colony have the ability to fly, and scout bees have also found many new homes. So the bees gather together and prepare to fly.
This is why we destroy the bee's hive, and the bees will not escape in a short time. In fact, it is to protect the queen bee. For a bee colony, only the queen bee's existence is the real bee colony, so
When the queen bee cannot fly away, even if other bees pay a great price, the bee colony will choose this way. This is because the queen bee is the head of the bee colony, and it is because of her that the bee colony can continue. This is really a sense of patriotism and understanding. Do you think so?
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