Most often the bees are found to be demoralized when there are no eggs or
young open brood left and no queen cells being tended. Before we even lift
a frame we can hear either the agitated queenless roar busy trying to set
things right, or the desolate moan of the demoralized hive.
-------------------------------------------------
I remember reading in one of the old bee books on my shelf of a study that
was done where all the drones were removed from a colony during the
honey-making season. (A bigger honey crop - they just eat and don't
produce.) The comment was made that the absence of the drones caused the
colony to have "poor moral." That does sound a bit like an emotion. The
crop was not improved.
If you believe the behavioral psychologists, emotions are really only a
learned behavior. Why could not an animal as behaviorally complex as the
honey bee learn behaviors that we would tag as emotions.
Larry Krengel
Marengo, IL USA
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