[Yunzow]

Hi, all,

I'm wanting to do research on a hypothesis I have about honey bee pheromones and I was wondering if y'all could point me in the right direction. I'm looking for the research articles about pheromones, especially on how hive size and ventilation might affect the pheromones and the cohesion of the hive.

For example, I often hear that hive inspections disrupt the pheromones of the hive and that takes several weeks to restore. Who did the original research on that?

Heart,
Thomas

 

[vtbeeguy]

I imagine no one did the research to "prove" that cause I'm pretty sure it's hogwash. Many "truths" in beekeeping are total b.s. such as "smoke tricking bees into thinking there is a fire so they stock up on honey to flee". I suspect the "it takes weeks or even days to restore pheromones in the hive" is another misnomer.

 

[rwlaw]

Ya, I’m sure there’s some disruption in the hives and will take a certain amount of time to dissipate the alarm pheromones that are sent out during a inspection, but probably in hours not days.

 

[little_john]

'Tis a great pity we can't see pheromones - if we could, then we'd see great plumes of the stuff exiting each hive, thanks to the bees fanning, along with the unwanted water vapour.
LJ