>> The nectar foragers in a colony acquire information about their
colony's nutritional status by noting the difficulty of finding food
storer bees to receive their nectar,...
>> A more detailed view of the behavior of food storer bees reveals
that their behavior is strongly influenced by the number of empty
storage cells in the hive.
What is being assumed here is that "the number of empty
storage cells in the hive" is the same to the bees as it is to a human.
I contend that this parameter changes with the hives's experience and
ambient conditions. In an infinitely huge hive, would bees expand and
forage infinitely?
No, of course not. The bees are cold blooded and also social. There
are geometric constraints to the volume they will store in and consider
to be "the (current) number of empty storage cells in the hive".
This varies with all the factors previously suggested. These are
cold-blooded critters and although the nest size can become huge in
hot weather, it contracts in cold.
That is sorta like the Earth's habitable regions. In warm cycles humans
expand north and start farms in Greenland. In cold cycles they retreat
south and leave that country to glaciers and a few hardy souls.
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm