On the telly

[Stromnessbees]

There will be a mention of bees on the telly tonight:

BBC1 9pm

See also: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rqgh4

Doris

[drumgerry]

Watched a little of it - remarkable footage from the inside of a hive. I confess I had no idea that some bees have the job of heater bees and others don't. The infra red footage seemed to make it clear though.

Gerry

[Trog]

I, too, watched the bee bit. Was a little confused by some of the claims. For example the first hot bee they showed was doing a waggle dance, surely indicating that it was a forager passing on info about a good source of nectar, rather than a bee that had never left the hive (and apparently never would?). Of course it would be hot, having just flown back full of high-octane nectar! (Must be similar to returning from a 5k run and walking straight into a centrally-heated house!)

[Neils]

heheh, I wrote almost the exact same thing on another forum.

I did also wonder about the claim that brood raised on one temperature was destined to be a house bee, those on another would become foragers, that pretty much flies in the face of accepted wisdom, as I understand it at least.

[Trog]

Indeed, Nellie, but the information was being put forward by a celebrity, so it must be true!

[Stromnessbees]

You miserable lot!

You can't expect things to be 100% spot on in a programme like this. I thought that the infrared footage was really interesting, the comments are of course up to discussion.

By the way, does anybody know why Richard Hammond wears a safety harness and rope for opening a beehive?

If you have missed it you can watch it on the BBCiplayer (scroll to 38 minutes if you are not interested in the rest):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode..._Out_of_Sight/

Doris

[Jimbo]

[QUOTE=Nellie;476.

I did also wonder about the claim that brood raised on one temperature was destined to be a house bee, those on another would become foragers, that pretty much flies in the face of accepted wisdom, as I understand it at least.[/QUOTE]

Hi Nellie,

Did not see the telly last night but you are right. The TV got that bit wrong. Bees have a gene called the FOR gene which was found to be similar to the fruit fly. In a young bee this FOR gene is suppressed therfore it remains a house bee. As it gets older the FOR gene is switched on and the bee becomes a forager. Scientists discovered it was some chemical signal that switched the FOR gene. They did an experiment where they exposed the young bees to the chemical signal and discovered they could make nurse bees become foraging bees at an earlier age. I can't remember the reason why they did this experiment and I don't know if temperature was involved.

Jimbo

[Stromnessbees]

Now you can watch those hot bees again on infrared camera:

http://www.hobos.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/preview/

Doris

[Stromnessbees]

I had another quick look at the livestream from Würzburg this afternoon. There was no wind at all, and still lots of bees landed on their backs! Are these bees very clumsy or do they get confused by the shiny surface of their 'landing board'?

Somewhere I have read that snow can do a similar thing, and bees try to fly upside down?

Doris