Beekeeping Basics
Invisible Bee Communication
Honey bee dance communication is well known and intriguing, but there is a lot of communication going on in the hive that is invisible, and more important for us as beekeepers to be aware of and understand.1 Having a better understanding of the invisible ways that bees communicate with one another can be very helpful in colony management decisions, from how to introduce queens to how long is too long for an inspection.
Pheromones are chemicals made in the bodies of honey bees that cause a response (and even changes in physiology) in other bees. There are two kinds of pheromones. One is called the releaser pheromone; it causes rapid changes in the behavior of the recipient. An example is the feeding of larvae by nurse bees.
The other type is the primer pheromone, which causes long-lasting changes to the behavior or physiology of the recipient. An example comes from queen substance, which delays foraging behavior in young bees, possibly by suppressing juvenile hormone (JH). Pheromones are produced by every class of bee in the colony: larvae, adult workers, drones, and the queen.
Queen substance
Queen substance (QS) is very important; it is what holds the colony together and keeps everyone working at the appropriate job and in harmony. Another name for queen substance is queen mandibular pheromone (QMP), so called because a big part of this chemical group is formed in the mandible of the queen (mandible means “jaw”). Other constituents of QMP come from her head, her abdomen, her ovipositor, and even her feet. One of the functions of QMP is to attract the retinue of bees that care for, clean, and feed the queen. A queen with strong QMP will have a large retinue, while a queen with weaker QMP will attract a smaller one.
Other functions of QMP include attracting drones in the drone congregation area (DCA), influencing comb building, inhibiting the rearing of new queens, and affecting biosynthesis of JH and dopamine receptors in workers. One very important purpose of QMP is the prevention of worker reproduction. This means two different things: Firstly, queen substance keeps the ovaries of workers from developing, so that they do not lay eggs. And secondly, it inhibits the swarm impulse. Swarm control is one of the biggest and most important jobs of the beekeeper, and knowing that QMP is decreased in a queen by the time of her second spring buildup helps us understand why swarming is harder to avert in colonies with older queens …
