From: "deelusbybeekeeper" <deelusbybeekeeper@excelonline.com>
Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2001 21:06:08 -0800
To: <BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: Keeping Bees Happy

Barry B. wrote:
> I don't accept the idea that the bees are "thinking" where to swarm to. I
> believe they have been programmed since creation to instinctively search for
> a place that is favorable to bees, relying on odor, sun orientation, etc.,
> to arrive at the final destination. Bees can not "think" in terms as we
> think. Nowhere can, or has, this been proven.

Reply:
Barry, just because man has not proven it yet on paper does not mean that
something does not exist or many things might disappear all around us. You
talk like here the bees are looking for a place to go to and I read that
as -a- place meaning one. But in reality the bees actually send out scouts
to several locations and then by process of elimination and with guards in
place at the new location keeping it safe from others, pre-guarding their
territory they finally make a choice after much deliberationi it seems.
Bees has brains similar by the way to man and other animals. Just because
you do not understand or me fully either yet, does not still make it or
them stupid.

Sorry IMPOV I cannot agree with you on this one.

> Yes bees are intelligent and yes they do communicate. But if one starts to
> equate animal intelligence with mans intelligence, they are on very shaky
> ground with no way to prove it. I'm not sure we will ever know how they do
> it. If animals are so intelligent, why don't they talk? I think you see what
> I'm getting at.

Reply:
Perhaps to other animals humans don't talk either Barry, at least the way
they are used to. But they do indeed communicate. Maybe like elephants with
sound vibrations our ears cannot pick up!

Yes I see what you are getting at, but I still don't see you proving what
you are saying either. Lack of communication here? But IMPOV bees are very
intelligent, someday maybe we might get intelligent enough to understand
and so talk to them and the other animals also. But then maybe we won't want
to really hear what they have to say about us.

Regards,

Dee