From: Micky Lee <mlee4321@juno.com>
Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2001 01:34:19 -0600
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Keeping Bees Happy

Barry wrote:

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?

Reply:

Intelligence has to do with the ability to learn. We test human
intelligence (IQ) by testing what has been learned. Of course the test
fails because of the assumption than we all have had the same opportunity
to learn.

Anyone who lived with a dog raised in the home or even been around a
trained dog knows dogs can and do learn to understand the language of
their trainer. A dog born raised and trained in say, Germany understands
German and will obey commands in German but is totally confused when
given commands in English. Often dogs try to tell their owners something
and the owner understands the dog is trying to tell them something. This
is very frustrating for both but the dog that has leaned to understand
their owners language, does not have the vocal cords to speak human and
the human cannot learn dog language.

If you have lived where there are very many outside dogs you know that
some evenings they talk to each other often, especially at my bedtime.
But, we have not learned to translate their language to ours. Warm
blooded animals do speak their own language. Many kinds of birds and
mammals learn human language, evidenced by the fact that we can train
them to respond to spoken commands. Humans have been able to translate
very little of the language of the animals they keep. Our language
includes facial expressions, and body language. We can understand many
emotions our dogs experience by their body language. Any dog lover can
tell when a dog is experiencing joy, sadness, because of the loss of a
loved one, also fear and anger is expressed in body language.

It has been shown that birds that fly with birds of other species learn
to understand that species, but few learn to speak their language. They
mostly they communicate each in their own language. It even has been
proven that crows in new England speak a different language than those
in Louisiana and Mississippi; the same as humans not associated with each
other speak different languages.

One chimpanzee raised like a human child, learned to read and write some
English typing on a word processor. She would answer questions and it
even interpreted for another chimp calling it by the name given to it by
its owner. She could not speak human words because she does not have the
vocal cords that will make human words. The chimps communicated with
each other with a spoken language, the owner never leaned to understand,
much less speak.

When I'm working my bees I can hear different sounds coming from the
bees. I do not know what most of them mean but they are the spoken
language of the bees. They communicate with body language, telling their
sisters the direction and distance to a food source they have discovered.
In a similar way, swarms communicate the location of discovered,
available housing. They also communicate with pheromones.

To determine the intelligence of our bees we must learn how much of their
behavior is instinctive and how much is learned. One question often
asked is, can one communicate what they have discovered to another so
they do not have to rediscover it own their own. Obviously bees do this.

Turn a hive around. All of the field bees will return to the hive
confused, they will fly around and crawl around till they discover the
new location of the entrance. Then on the next trip and for several days
after, they will land on the hive where the entrance used to be and crawl
around to where it is now. It seems they must go to where they
previously learned the entrance was then crawl to the place they have
learned it has moved to. This does not seem very smart to me.

In conclusion I know my bees have some intelligence, because I know they
can learn and communicate what they have learned. When I slip and drop a
hive box, and the bees' behavior rapidly changes I do belive I am correct
in saying the bees are afraid or angry. I do not believe that when I
accidently smash a bee, her sister stings me for revenge, she does this
instinctively. Nor does another sister morn her loss like birds and
mammals do.

What I believe we will never know is does a bee think about it and decide
it is now time to advance to the next job on my career ladder or is this
instinctive behavior. Swarming behavior, I believe, is a part of
reproductive behavior, and is instinctive in all animals.

End of thesis,
Micky