> What a researcher (can't find his article, but it's here and I can
> dig it up if desired) found was that swarms would start comb
> building using the same orientation as in the parent colony.  (He
> tested it with good experimental procedure IMHO.) It makes sense,
> since organizing a colony to all start a job like that is quite a
> feat when there are no top bars.  The article did not suggest to my
> recollection any orientation preference; only that the lines of
> force could be sensed.  The research work was done in Brazil, but
> bees use magnetoreception at all latitudes and must normally
> compensate for the various inclinations of the field.  Incidentally,
> the simplest organism that I know of using magnetoreception is a mud
> burrowing bacteria in the tropics.  It uses the inclination of the
> magnetic field to orient up and down.  It is so small that the tiny
> magnetic crystals in its body can actually move it.  Noone knows yet
> how bees and other magnetoreceptive animals sense the orientation of
> their EXTREMELY tiny magnets.
 
While the compass orientation of the comb is relevant, the point that
was most intriguing to me here was that -- according to the theory in
question -- the bees use the _vertical_ component of this particular
magnetic vector to somehow determine how -high- the combs should go,
and how many combs wide.
 
The implication was that where the lines of force were more
vertical, hives were naturally more vertical, and where they were more
horizontal (near the equator), hives naturally spread more sideways
than up.
 
> P.S.  Allen, if you want an idea discussed on the list you should
> remember that you have set your mailer reply default to yourself,
> and might change it back.  I only caught it by accident before I
> sent the mail.
 
FWIW I keep it that way on purpose.  I figure that it should take a
conscious and deliberate act to send a post (or reply) to the list.
 
Regards
 
Allen
 
W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper                                         VE6CFK
RR#1, Swalwell, Alberta  Canada T0M 1Y0
Internet:[log in to unmask] & [log in to unmask]
Honey. Bees, & Art <http://www.internode.net/~allend/>