Do Bees Sleep At Night?

[Michael Pawelek]

I realize that the definition of "sleep" for humans is vastly different than other species but in their own way do hives of bees sleep at night or are they just in a reduced activity level? Is any form of work done at night by any group of bees in a hive?

[Tohya]

The foragers tend to sleep more at night. The nurse bees sleep for short periods of time and are generally active all day/night.


Here is a study done on it.
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/211/18/3028.full

[bevy's honeybees]

Thanks for posting the link Tohya. Answers questions I've had and I can share with my beekeeper biologist cousin.

[Larry S]

I have mine on a 24 hour shift

Larry S.

[chas10]

I have 9 lang hives outside at 2 different locations and a 10 frame swing away observation hive in my house. I have observed the hive in the middle of the night and it looks just like it does in the middle of the day except all the bees are home. They just keep going and working.

[sqkcrk]

Someone is always doing something, but, in a bees daily life, a lot of time is spent at rest, not doing anything. People have actually charted this. Which is sort of amazing to me. But I am glad they did, so we would know.

In "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Beekeeping" by Morse and Hooper, there are two charts and text. To paraphrase: In the first 24 days of a bees adult life each day consists roughly of three periods, 1/3 resting, 1/3 patrolling(walking about), 1/3 working at some job.

There are two whole pages of text just on Division of Labour. Some pretty neat stuff.

[Daniel Y]

I noticed a lot of my bees will go above the inner cover and "Rest" lately with the heat they will beard and I also consider this rest. Some simply stand on the outer edge of the landing board also. They do not seem to be guarding as much as they are just setting their doing nothing. There is a clear difference in their behavior and that of a bee that is guarding.

[sqkcrk]

Guarding is one of the jobs that older bees do. Those not exhibiting Gaurding behavior are probably less mature and not necassarily foragers either.