Unique video from within beehives provides never before seen by humans special insight into honey bee behaviors–including mouth-to-mouth larval feedings…
The European honey bee (Apis mellifera) famously lives in large and complex colonies, it’s the collective behavior of the hive’s unique individuals that determines the colony’s success — behaviors such as nest building, foraging, storing and ripening food, brood nursing, temperature regulation, hygiene, or hive defense. Most of these activities happen within the structure of the hive itself and aren’t easily observable — but in this new study, scientists were able to video record individual honeycomb frames and even cells from within special glass-framed observation hives, providing new insights into honey bee behavior at the individual level!
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Study overview
For these videos, the researchers continuously recorded truncated honeycomb cells within the brood area of their observation hives with the frames turned 90 degrees for visibility, permitting a sideways view into the cells in the middle of the colony.
The recordings show a range of worker, offspring, and queen behaviors within the brood cells, including the queen’s egg laying; embryonic hatching and larval cocooning; nurse worker bees’ inspection and feeding of larva; workers’ use of wax scales and existing nest material to remodel combs; storage of pollen and nectar in cells; and hygienic practices, such as cannibalism, grooming and surface cleaning. Additionally, researchers captured several processes previously undocumented, such as mouth-to-mouth feeding from nurse bees to larvae as well as nurse bee thermoregulation within cells containing the developing brood prompting the descent of eggs within their comb cells.
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Why this video is important
The wealth of video recordings providing specific instances of honeybee behavior will prove insightful for scientists as well as beekeepers and the general public. The authors especially hope their material will help raise awareness of the critical declines in pollinator and bee populations, and encourage the use of their work for educational purposes.
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“In this study, the authors provide a comprehensive source of online video material that offers a view of honey bee behavior within comb cells of a functioning colony. By providing a new mode of observation for the scientific community, beekeepers, and the general public the authors call attention to the general decline of insect biomass and diversity.”
-Dr. Paul Siefert, Goethe-Universität, Germany
SEE THE SECRET LIVES OF BEES VIDEOS HERE:
S1 Video. Honey bee worker development: Oviposition.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s001
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S2 Video. Honey bee thermoregulation: Cell occupation.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s002
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S3 Video. Honey bee brood care: Short and long inspections.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s003
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S4 Video. Honey bee worker development: Larval hatch.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s004
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S5 Video. Honey bee brood care: Feeding of young larva.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s005
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S6 Video. Honey bee brood care: Mouth-to-mouth feeding.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s006
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S7 Video. Honey bee larval development: Cocooning.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s007
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S8 Video. Honey bee comb remodelling: Wax strings.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s008
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S9 Video. Honey bee comb construction: Wax scales.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s009
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S11 Video. Honey bee nutrition: Nectar storage and uptake.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s011
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S12 Video. Honey bee nutrition: Pollen storage.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s012
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S13 Video. Honey bee nutrition: Pollen unloading, packing and moisturisation.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s013
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S14 Video. Honey bee thermoregulation: Evaporative cooling.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s014
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S16 Video. Honey bee hygiene: Varroa consumption.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s016
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S17 Video. Honey bee hygiene: Allo-grooming.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s017
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S18 Video. Honey bee hygiene: The ‘rocking movement’.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247323.s018
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Journal Reference: Paul Siefert, Nastasya Buling, Bernd Grünewald. Honey bee behaviours within the hive: Insights from long-term video analysis. PLOS ONE, 2021; 16 (3): e0247323 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247323
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