100 to 1 bees find their way. How do bees find their way home? Several common versions. How bees can navigate in cloudy weather

To the question How do bees find their hive? because they fly away from him for several kilometers, and there are a lot of hives given by the author adaptability the best answer is you will be surprised, but by the smell and magnetic field earth. The bee feels its hive several kilometers away. If the hive is moved to the side by a few meters, it will no longer fall into it, because it will look for it exactly at the point where it stood before...

Answer from 22 answers[guru]

Hey! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: How do bees find their hive? because they fly away from him for several kilometers, and there are a lot of hives

Answer from luxury[guru]
In books on beekeeping, you can read a lot of interesting things about the life of these little living creatures. The bees remember where to return to. Each bee has its own little compass and map in its head. And they pass information about honey-bearing places to each other, dancing on the landing board.

Answer from Alex Andrusevich[guru]
Honeybees find their way to their native hive, guided not only by the position of the Sun and the polarization of light in the sky, but also by the features of the landscape; in addition, these insects keep in mind the path along which to fly to the hive for several days.
A group of scientists from the Australian national university investigated the behavior of bees, releasing them at different distances from the hive. It is believed that bees remember the distance and direction in which they fly, and return back exactly the same way. The researchers caught bees returning to the hives and planted them in a box, after which they drove them several kilometers and watched how the insects would get. The fact that the bees were traveling in a box left them without information about the direction and distance to the hive, that is, in this case, they had to be guided by their knowledge of the landscape. Insects were transported to four places, in accordance with the cardinal directions.
In an article published in the online journal PLoS ONE, entomologists report that bees released four kilometers from the hive found their way easily, but insects taken out eastward got home faster.
The bees, which were released in the east, saw the Black Mountain in front of them on their way back, which could serve as a good guide for them. In the same way, they got to the hive faster if they were released after dinner, when the sun was moving to the west. When the distance was increased to 7 km, only those insects that were released with east side. The bees, which were 13 km away, were looking for a way for 2–3 days.
Bees can return home without even having an accurate "map" of the route; to choose a direction, they need the most common landscape landmarks and the sky with the Sun overhead. According to scientists, most of all they were surprised that the insects were able to remember information about the location of the house for several days, which took them to long way to the hive.

Why do bees dance, how do they find a hive by smell and where is magnetite in their brain - each question has an applied value. The answers are given with the source.

People on the streets were asked how bees find their way home. Most of them answered "by smell". In second place was the answer "from memory". A biologist would answer "according to the sun" or "according to the terrain." Perhaps all factors will be effective. But the action depends on the weather.

How can bees navigate in cloudy weather?

Let the humidity of the air be increased and the pressure reduced. Then the odors spread badly. It is believed that in such conditions the bees are guided by the Sun and by the map of the landscape. The map is drawn up when flying for a bribe.

Collecting pollen in autumn

The Sun has its own principle, and it does not depend on the weather. The rays of the natural luminary are always polarized, and bees have polarizing vision. The same applies to most insects.

It is unlikely that in cloudy weather orientation by sound is possible. But sound is the main element in the communication system.

Which bees find their way home?

Among honey bees, there are three varieties: worker, female queen, drone. Genetically, the first two are one and the same. Drones orient themselves worse than others on the ground:

• 5-10 drones were carried on combs 2 km from the hive. All returned;
• 3-3.5 km - only a few individuals returned;
• 4 km - all lost.

Working specimens of Ukrainian steppe bees collect honey 5 km from the hive. In reality, the flight range is longer.

The queen bee is 5-10 km away from the hive. True, she needs to perform an approximate flight.

Queen Buckfast

• If a person is near the hive when taking off for an approximate flight, you have to wait 7-10 minutes. Otherwise, the queen bee will not find her hive.
• Until 22:30, that is, until the completion of the flights, the hives cannot be moved even a meter.

The second tip applies to worker bees.

Orientation of bees

If the hives are set among the trees, the bees are lost. So the apiary is located in a clearing, on the border with a forest, etc. You can not make an apiary in a lowland where fog accumulates.

forest apiary

Often end unsuccessfully and flights over water. The reason is the presence of glare.

According to the natural navigator

AT nervous system honey bees found crystals of magnetite. They are connected to nerve endings. The whole system operates so precisely that one can draw an analogy with a GPS navigator.

Earth magnetic map

The error is the same 60-80 cm, by which the hive can be pushed back.

A magnetic field is a vector that has direction and intensity. So that we are talking not about the compass, but about the current natural navigator.

Sun

The physics course continues: we must remember what polarized light and a polarizing crystal are.

Crystal spar

If you look at the Sun through Icelandic spar, you can see a bright point or black spot. However, turning the crystal 90 degrees, you can notice the changes: the spot has turned into a luminous point, and vice versa. The effect is also used in the vision of insects.

1. The hive is covered with an opaque cap with a window where a polaroid is installed;
2. By changing the angle of light polarization, one observes the rotation of the dances of the bees by the corresponding angle.

Modern navigation systems determine the position of the Sun even at dusk. The principle used is the same as for bees. The system continues to work when the star goes beyond the horizon by 6-7%. These figures are also characteristic of insects.

To be precise, light is polarized. clear sky. The sun emits unpolarized light.

By smell

Above, it was considered how bees find their way home at a considerable distance. They smell flowers at a distance of 0.8-0.9 km. Even less will be the distance that allows you to recognize the hive by smell.

marker iron

On the abdomen of the queen bee and all working individuals are Nasonov's glands. They, these glands, produce a substance that serves as a marker of the family or swarm.

An error with the choice of a hive is excluded by nature. But theft is not ruled out: visits to other people's hives are not prohibited.

landscape orientation

Bees navigate by the sun or by the magnetic field. And in the works of Randolph Menzel it is proved that the landscape is also a source of information: in the head of an insect, mental map. If the map and the position of the Sun conflict, then only the Sun is ignored. Some of the objects are not taken into account when building a map - a rough scheme is built.

The map of the passed route is stored in memory for 3-4 days. It contains information about the terrain, about water bodies and about individual landmarks, such as a lone tree.

Flying in the maze

The maximum volume of one card is designed for 10-12 km. However, in the forest, where there are many objects, the distance is halved or tripled.

Biocommunication system

In addition to the marker substance, two methods of transmission are used in communication: dance and sound. The organ of hearing is located on the joints of the legs, and the "voice" should be low. Bass is 300 hertz, and bees talk in the 250-500 range.

Sound signals

Honey bees have a perfect way of transmitting sound. Example:

• Hive destroyed - bursts every 2-3 seconds (up to 10 minutes);
• Hive ventilation - basic sound (250 Hz) with a large number overtones (ringing);
• A honey plant was found - a sequence of sounds, longer with increasing distance to the honey plant (photo).

The queen bee, when it leaves the mother liquor, emits “fanfares”: a long signal - a pause - a short signal.

There are two types of dances - circular and wagging, that is, the "eight". The first of them is used when the distance to the honey plant does not exceed 12 m, 35 or 65 m. The numbers are indicated for different breeds.

bee dance

Angle between line segment and vertical axis equal to the angle between the direction of the Sun and the honey plant. And the time it takes to travel a segment is the distance. Example: 1 s - 500 m, 2 s - 2 km.

"Wag" always comes with a frequency equal to 15 Hz. What caused this is the question. Known issues:

• Bees do not collect when the Sun is at its zenith. The problem is solved by deviating the luminary by 2.5 degrees.
• Different breeds have different dance speeds. The Krajinsky breed is fast, Caucasian breeds- No. Some bees do not understand others.

The brain of each bee has both a stopwatch and a clock built into it.

Experience with night dancing:

• A lamp shines on the glass walls of the hive;
• If the experiment is carried out before 24:00, the dance of the scout bees indicates the "evening" honey plant;
• If after 24:00, then on the "morning" (Lindauer's experiment).

The language of communication of bees is not interactive. But you can argue: the dance of two scouts lasts 5-6 hours. One bee sees the others, and it strives not to yield.

Bees are highly organized insects. There are legends about their coherence in actions, "public" and family life. Interestingly, the bee, in principle, can lead a solitary lifestyle. But still prefers to coexist in a society of his own kind. One of the questions that scientists continue to argue about is “how do bees find their way home?”. There are several explanations for this phenomenon. Let's try to figure it out.

Bee family. Uterus

Bees are heterogeneous in their social status. There is a queen bee that feeds in a special way and looks larger than an ordinary bee. She lays eggs (sometimes two thousand units a day), is responsible for the reproduction of the genus, and lives longer than everyone else. The queen only leaves the hive a few times in her life to be fertilized. The rest of the time (usually five or six years) she spends inside, where she is served by other individuals.

Drones

They play the role of a kind of "sperm bank" and are mainly intended only for the continuation of the bee family, the reproduction of offspring. A sexually mature male drone flies out of the hive several times, copulates with the queen in flight, after which it soon dies. The remaining drones live only a few months and with the onset of cold weather are expelled from the hive by other bees. Outside the house, they die of cold and hunger.

worker bees

These are barren females, the purpose of which is to collect pollen and nectar, to serve the larvae and the uterus. These insects will be discussed.

Which bees find their way home?

Working individuals are precisely those bees that, in search of food, fly away from the hive to fairly large (relative to their size) distances. How do bees find their way home? After all, a bee that collected nectar a few kilometers from home returns to the place to “surrender” it to feed the family, and flies back again! This happens several times a day, every day.

Biocommunication system

Her bees use to exchange a variety of signals. One of these is the peculiar smell of their bee family. It helps the bee, which has a fairly developed sense of smell (for example, drones find an unfertilized queen also by smell), to return home. American scientists have scientific experiments, showing how bees find their way to a treat: these insects smell at great distances. And with the help of the use of some aromas, they can even be trained to some extent! So, bees were taught to look for dangerous substances by smell: nitroglycerin or dynamite, for example.

sun position

It is quite difficult for people in cloudy weather to determine where the sun may be. With bees, this is much easier. They constantly use the position of the sun as a kind of guide. Moreover, for bees, the presence of cloudiness is of no importance. The main thing is the polarization of light in the sky and certain fluctuations resulting from it. So, to the question “How do bees find their way home?” You can also answer like this: "According to the sun." This phenomenon is similar to the action of a compass, as if built into the head of an insect. Thus, the worker bee does not spend much time looking for the way back to the hive, but uses it as a guide. Interestingly, this insect "keeps in memory" the path flown for several days!

landscape orientation

And yet, according to the testimony of some biologists, one of the versions of how bees find their way home is their ability to navigate the terrain, use and remember landscape changes. With the help of experiments, scientists have found that a bee can find a way at a distance of more than 10 kilometers, in any, even cloudy, weather. And for several days, keep in mind the location of the home hive.

Bees are highly organized insects. There are legends about their coherence in actions, "public" and family life. Interestingly, the bee, in principle, can lead a solitary lifestyle. But still prefers to coexist in a society of his own kind. One of the questions that scientists continue to argue about is “how do bees find their way home?”. There are several explanations for this phenomenon. Let's try to figure it out.

Bee family. Uterus

Bees are heterogeneous in their social status. There is a queen bee that feeds in a special way and looks larger than an ordinary bee. She lays eggs (sometimes two thousand units a day), is responsible for the reproduction of the genus, and lives longer than everyone else. The queen only leaves the hive a few times in her life to be fertilized. The rest of the time (usually five or six years) she spends inside, where she is served by other individuals.

Drones

They play the role of a kind of "sperm bank" and are mainly intended only for the continuation of the bee family, the reproduction of offspring. A sexually mature male drone flies out of the hive several times, copulates with the queen in flight, after which it soon dies. The remaining drones live only a few months and with the onset of cold weather are expelled from the hive by other bees. Outside the house, they die of cold and hunger.

worker bees

These are barren females, the purpose of which is to collect pollen and nectar, to serve the larvae and the uterus. These insects will be discussed.

Which bees find their way home?

Working individuals are precisely those bees that, in search of food, fly away from the hive to fairly large (relative to their size) distances. How do bees find their way home? After all, a bee that collected nectar a few kilometers from home returns to the place to “surrender” it to feed the family, and flies back again! This happens several times a day, every day.

Biocommunication system

Its bees are used to transmit information, exchanging a variety of signals. One of these is the peculiar smell of their bee family. It helps the bee, which has a fairly developed sense of smell (for example, drones find an unfertilized queen also by smell), to return home. American scientists conducted scientific experiments that showed how bees find their way to treats: these insects smell at great distances. And with the help of the use of some aromas, they can even be trained to some extent! So, bees were taught to look for dangerous substances by smell: nitroglycerin or dynamite, for example.

sun position

It is quite difficult for people in cloudy weather to determine where the sun may be. With bees, this is much easier. They constantly use the position of the sun as a kind of guide. Moreover, for bees, the presence of cloudiness is of no importance. The main thing is the polarization of light in the sky and certain fluctuations resulting from it. So, to the question “How do bees find their way home?” You can also answer like this: "According to the sun." This phenomenon is similar to the action of a compass, as if built into the head of an insect. Thus, the worker bee does not spend much time looking for the way back to the hive, but uses it as a guide. Interestingly, this insect "keeps in memory" the path flown for several days!

landscape orientation

And yet, according to the testimony of some biologists, one of the versions of how bees find their way home is their ability to navigate the terrain, use and remember landscape changes. With the help of experiments, scientists have found that a bee can find a way at a distance of more than 10 kilometers, in any, even cloudy, weather. And for several days, keep in mind the location of the home hive.