The Annual Cycle of Pollen Storage by Honey Bees

Jeffree, E. P.; Allen, Delia M.

doi:10.1093/jee/50.2.211

Cited by 32 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…Therefore, colonies respond to exposure to low amounts of BP by increasing the influx of pollen over time. As previously observed, this influx does not lead to increases in pollen stores [21], [22], [23], [24], [14]. Our study confirms that pollen stores are not significantly affected by brood pheromone treatment and the resultant behavioral modulation.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Division of Labor Associated with Brood Rearing in the Honey Bee: How Does It Translate to Colony Fitness?

2011

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Division of labor is a striking feature observed in honey bees and many other social insects. Division of labor has been claimed to benefit fitness. In honey bees, the adult work force may be viewed as divided between non-foraging hive bees that rear brood and maintain the nest, and foragers that collect food outside the nest. Honey bee brood pheromone is a larval pheromone that serves as an excellent empirical tool to manipulate foraging behaviors and thus division of labor in the honey bee. Here we use two different doses of brood pheromone to alter the foraging stimulus environment, thus changing demographics of colony division of labor, to demonstrate how division of labor associated with brood rearing affects colony growth rate. We examine the effects of these different doses of brood pheromone on individual foraging ontogeny and specialization, colony level foraging behavior, and individual glandular protein synthesis. Low brood pheromone treatment colonies exhibited significantly higher foraging population, decreased age of first foraging and greater foraging effort, resulting in greater colony growth compared to other treatments. This study demonstrates how division of labor associated with brood rearing affects honey bee colony growth rate, a token of fitness.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Division of Labor Associated with Brood Rearing in the Honey Bee: How Does It Translate to Colony Fitness?

2011

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“…During the summer, a colony in the northeastern United States typically gathers about 60 kg of honey, but only consumes about 35 kg, hence accumulating some 25 kg in the hive (Rosov 1944;Seeley 1985;Winston 1987). In contrast, a colony gathers only about 20 kg of pollen and consumes nearly all of it during the season, keeping a stockpile of only about 1 kg in the hive at any given time (Jeffree and Allen 1957;Seeley 1985). Since the colony does not maintain a large store of pollen, it is not well buffered against environmental variations in pollen availability.…”

Section: Foraging By Honey Bee Coloniesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The regulation of pollen foraging by honey bees: how foragers assess the colony's need for pollen

Camazine

1993

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

168

112

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The honey bee colony presents a challenging paradox. Like an organism, it functions as a coherent unit, carefully regulating its internal milieu. But the colony consists of thousands of loosely assembled individuals each functioning rather autonomously. How, then, does the colony acquire the necessary information to organize its work force? And how do individuals acquire information about specific colony needs, and thus know what tasks need be performed ? I address these questions through experiments that analyze how honey bees acquire information about the colony's need for pollen and how they regulate its collection. The results demonstrate features of the colony's system for regulating pollen foraging: (1) Pollen foragers quickly acquire new information about the colony's need for pollen. (2) When colony pollen stores are supplemented, many pollen foragers respond by switching to nectar foraging or by remaining in the hive and ceasing to forage at all.(3) Pollen foragers do not need direct contact with pollen to sense the colony's change of state, nor do they use the odor of pollen as a cue to assess the colony's need for pollen. (4) Pollen foragers appear to obtain their information about colony pollen need indirectly from other bees in the hive. (5) The information takes the form of an inhibitory cue. The proposed mechanism for the regulation of pollen foraging involves a hierarchical system of information acquisition and a negative feedback loop. By taking advantage of the vast processing capacity of large numbers of individuals working in parallel, such a system of information acquisition and dissemination may be ideally suited to promote efficient regulation of labor within the colony. Although each individual relies on only limited, local information, the colony as a whole achieves a finely-tuned response to the changing conditions it experiences.

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“…Unlike nectar or honey stores, amount of pollen are fairly small, about one kg at any given time (Jeffree and Allen, 1957;Fewell and Winston, 1992).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Additive Feeding with Pollen and Water on Some Characteristics of Honeybee Colonies and Pine Honey Production

Yeninar

Akyol

Yörük

2015

Turkish JAF Sci.Tech.

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This study was carried out to determine the effects of additive feeding with pollen and water on honey yield, colony population, winter loses and wintering ability of colonies in pine honey production season in Muğla province of Turkey. Total twenty honeybee colonies had similar physiological pattern (queen age, genotype, amount of adult worker bees (number of frames covered with adult worker bees), sealed brood areas (cm 2 ) and food stocks) were used and randomly divided into four groups. Three of them were fed extra with pollen+water, pollen and water. The control colonies were not given additive foods. Honey yield in pollen+water, pollen, water and control groups were found to be 24.2±1.1, 17.3±0.8, 16.3±1.0 and 12.0±0.6 kg/colony respectively. Group means were statistically significant. From September 25 to February 15 (wintering), losses of the adult worker bees in pollen+water, pollen, water and control groups were 50%, 69%, 68% and 82%, decrease of sealed brood areas in the groups were 48%, 66%, 68% and 85%, respectively. Wintering ability of pollen+water, pollen, water and control groups were found to be 92.1±3.2, 70.4±17.8, 67.1±16.7 and 51.0±21.2% respectively. The results showed that additive feeding in pine honey production season, especially feeding with both pollen+water provided nearly 100% more honey production and 80% better wintering ability than the control group. In addition, feeding with only pollen or water had similar positive effect (approximately 40%) better than control group

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The Annual Cycle of Pollen Storage by Honey Bees

Cited by 32 publications

References 0 publications

Division of Labor Associated with Brood Rearing in the Honey Bee: How Does It Translate to Colony Fitness?

Division of Labor Associated with Brood Rearing in the Honey Bee: How Does It Translate to Colony Fitness?

The regulation of pollen foraging by honey bees: how foragers assess the colony's need for pollen

Effects of Additive Feeding with Pollen and Water on Some Characteristics of Honeybee Colonies and Pine Honey Production

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