>I forward to the list the following response from William F. Towne who has
>researched the roll of sound in honeybee communication.
>
>Robert Hawkes
 
I thank you heartily Robert for soliciting a response from Mr. Towne.  Even
in my rather out of the way province (Prince Edward Island) I had no trouble
finding his article since it was in such a popular journal (scientific
american).  I may have considerably more difficulty finding the "bee world"
article, since neither the public or university libraries here subscribe to
that journal, but I will obtain it somehow.
>
>We now know that bees can detect sounds. They receive airborne sounds with
>their antennae and substrate-borne vibrations with the subgenual organs in
>their legs.  Queen piping is detected as comb vibrations with the
>subgenual organs.  The antennal receptors are used in detecting the sounds
>produced by dancing bees and possibly for other puropses as well. A recent
>review of these things, especially airborne sound reception, is:
>
>Dreller, C., and W.H. Kirchner (1995) The sense of hearing in honey bees.
>Bee World 76(1): 6-17.
>
>See also the references therein. Another review is:
>
>Kirchner, W.H., and W.F. Towne (1994) The sensory basis of the honey
>bee's dance language. Scientific American 270(6): 52-59.
 
It seems to me that there might be some practical applications of this for
the commercial beekeeper.  I wonder how long the bee's response to vibration
of the comb lasts:  "At the same time the followers emit sounds that vibrate
the comb.  The forager stops her dance when she receives these signals and
delivers samples of the food she has collected..." (from the article in
scientific american).  It would be interesting to see the response to
touching various tuning forks which vibrate at those low frequencies which
the bees can detect AND DISCRIMINATE to the comb while the beekeeper is
holding it.  Occasionally the bees can be running on the combs when you are
looking for a queen and it makes it a little more difficult.  Smoke makes it
worse.  If just giving them a little "buzz" settled them down it might be a
useful tool.
        As well, I often leave my truck idling while I'm loading and
unloading hives because the vibration of the engine has such a calming
effect on the bees, and I usually move my hives with the entrances wide
open.  If you knew exactly what the most calming frequency was, perhaps just
a small vibrator would do the same, and save fuel.
        I began my question about hearing in bees by noting, tongue in
cheek, that I played some pretty loud music sometimes when working in the
beeyards.  And then I titled it:  "Beedances to what music?".  Well, it
turned out that sound seems to actually be very important to beedances,  and
I later found this statement by C.G.Butler in my old copy of Hive and
Honeybee:  "Those workers that happen to be near a queen when she pipes
"freeze", stopping whatever they are doing for a few seconds and remaining
still.  Such behaviour can also be induced by a vibrating tuning fork
applied to the glass of an observation hive or EVEN BY LOUD SINGING BY A
HUMAN BEING." (the capitals are mine)
So the next time the bees are running all over the combs, WHISTLE WHILE YOU
WORK!
                                        Stan Sandler,  Milk and Honey Farm