This is from an article called "Stress and Honey Bees," written by Eric Erickson and published in Gleanings in Bee Culture, November 1990.

Few beekeepers question whether their systems of bee breeding and colony management adversely affect the normal biological processes of honey bees. And even fewer consider assuring that the environment within the hive is “natural” – as close as possible to that which is optimal for honey bee survival. It seems that we have come to expect that honey bee colonies are generic and are only found in nearly square white boxes just as children believe that milk comes from paper or plastic containers. 

The fact is, of course, that before the intervention of beekeepers, feral (wild) honey bees were (and still are) highly adapted to native habitats and utilize as domiciles naturally occurring cavities in living trees, rock crevices, ground holes and other similar spaces. As beekeepers, we assume that the white boxes we provide as hives are somehow adequate if not better than natural cavities. We find it difficult to understand why, given our breeding and management strategies, our bees are often unable to withstand the onslaughts of weather, diseases, mites and perhaps even the incursion of Africanized bees. The fact is that from the very moment we place bees in artificial wooden hives, we impose upon them a large measure of stress.

Stress as it occurs in honey bees is still poorly defined. To evaluate fully the effects of honey bee stress inducers, we need to know much more than we presently do about the natural biology of honey bees. Having said this, however, let us examine in detail what we know and can presume about several probable sources of honey bee stress.

The number of honey bees in a normal feral colony varies from about 14,000 to 25,000 (Seeley and Morse, 1976). Beekeepers, using a variety of strategies, are able to increase managed populations to approximately 60,000 (Farrar, 1968). These strategies include increasing available brood nest space (e.g. cavity size), reversing the brood nest, stimulative feeding and breeding honeybee stocks for increased brood production. 

The basic design of the Langstroth hive may also contribute to the increased size of managed populations. For example, the spaces created by the development of the moveable frame greatly alters air flow patterns within the hive. This increase in the potential for air movement is further enhanced by beekeeper efforts to ventilate hives and provide a greatly enlarged entrance relocated at the bottom of the cavity. Conversely, the natural cavity that the bees choose has combs that are attached to the ceiling and walls. Air exchange is restricted between the large, undulating, pendulous combs. Ventilation is greatly reduced by an upper (usually) entrance, generally a tiny knothole, crack or crevice (Avitabile et al, 1978).

My purpose in writing this article is simply to emphasize the fact, as stated in the opening paragraph, that beekeepers all too often unnecessarily stress their bees. Hopefully, by drawing attention to some of the little recognized but significant sources of honey bee stress, beekeepers around the world will be able to improve their colony management strategies and hence their profits.

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Comments: This sounds familiar by now. Neither this author nor subsequent ones ever define what stress is. What some people would call stressful, others would call normal work. Is work supposed to be stress-free? Every job I ever had was stressful a lot of the time. I figured that's what I was getting paid for. 

Do we suppose bees find their work stressful? Would they rather loll about the hive and sleep? Most animals have to work hard just to keep fed and housed. The whole concept of stress may not even apply to their ordinary activities. If an author is going to make statements about what is "stressful" to non-humans, they should attempt to define it.

PLB

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