Colony Intelligence/Decisions

[D. Murrell]

Hi Guys,

I did a little experiment that was suggested in the tbh forum. I'd post something there, but can't remember where it was at. Anyway, harvesting comb left about 1/3 of my top bars bare at the very far end, away from the entrance.

I run two entrances on the long side and keep one of them plugged.

I unplugged the second entrance and centered the broodnest between the two entrances which displaced the broodnest, about half it's width, toward the rear of the hive leaving an empty space on each end.

One hive adjusted to the relocation by utilizing both entrances and building some additional storage comb in the traditional location behind the broodnest, toward the original rear of the hive. Not much comb was built as most hives were shutting down and preparing for fall/winter.

Another hive went into an emergency mode. They rebuilt comb and completely filled up the empty space toward the orignal entrance. They also built abundant storage comb behind the original broodnest.

These hives reacted quite differently to my interference. How and why a colony decides to focus on a particular activity or direction is an interesting question to ponder. Sometimes these 'decisions' could fortuitously affect the colonies outcome and probably our evaluation of them.

I've had hives that would rank near the bottom of the list for a year or so. Then suddenly, they became my top performers the next year. Genetics being the same, maybe that year they got it right.

Regards
Dennis

[ September 09, 2006, 07:14 PM: Message edited by: B Wrangler ]

[Michael Bush]

I often wonder how often bee survival is just luck. The same bees with the same genetics might just make the opposite decision next time and it might be right or it might be wrong and it might be right if the weather cooperates and wrong if it doesn't.

[Jim Fischer]

Did either or both of these colonies have any "bare" top
bars before you harvested your honey, or did every
bar have a comb built upon it?

Some hives are certainly better at drawing comb than
others, and a larger colony can make a smaller one
look lazy when it comes to such tasks.

It will likely be hard to see if the colony that drew
less comb continues to "catch up" with the one that
drew more comb, as it is fall, and no colony would
be "in the mood" to draw comb, nor would the
weather support the effort very well.

But your experience is easily explained if the colony
that drew more comb was larger, and had more bees
to do the work.

[D. Murrell]

Hi Jim,

The hives were both about the same size and had about the same production. One hive decided to hunker down for the winter. The other acted much like a new swarm.

Regards
Dennis

[Jim Fischer]

> same size and had about the same production...

Were the queens of the same stock?

That's why I like paying a few bucks more for pedigree
thoroughbreds from Sue Cobey's lines, as the queens
are consistent, so the hives are more consistent.

Well, if beekeeping was completely predictable, we
wouldn't call it beekeeping - we'd call it "heavy lifting". smile.gif