> Are these claims proven experimentally, or are they, as is the case with
> much bee literature simply an elaborate fiction?
Bees landing on flowers are going to land with a fairly significant static
charge. I'm not convinced that static charges would persist over the wide
range of materials used for beehives and combs. I am often covered by
polystyrene packing peanuts after opening a mail-order box, (yes, I'm just
that attractive!) and I wonder about bees in the Polystyrene hives. Even in
wooden hives, I'd expect that any static charge on a bee would be likely to
be discharged by a screened bottom board, and the metal lip at the entrance
edge, often the first point of contact for many landing foragers.
But, the mechanical vibrations are a far more credible a mechanism than
barely-measureable electromagnetic fields, in that the mechanisms/effects
are easily measureable and the results tangible. Here's a paper worth
reading:
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/199/12/2585.full.pdf
"The poor vibrational performance of large commercial combs and far better
performance of combs with free edges led us to direct our attention to combs
that had been used by bees over the summer and in which they had removed
cells between the comb and the frame... Transmission along cell rows in
areas fused to the frame is, as in all large frames, tuned to frequencies
around 20 Hz and no frequencies beyond 120 Hz are conducted far from the
source. However, 20 Hz signals passing across cells opposite an area of
comb freed from the frame are amplified, and although 250 Hz signals are
attenuated, the bandpass profile of the small wild combs can again be
recognized. Displacements of the rim of a cell in an area of comb freed of
the frame can be recorded in cells up to 30 cells away, suggesting that bees
dancing in a frameless area could broadcast signals over a much greater
distance than those dancing on framed combs."
So the practical implications of the cited paper are much more useful to the
beekeeper than speculation about the additional influence of tiny
electrical/static charges and fields. The paper suggests several things to
the beekeeper:
a) That bees chew the edges of that seemingly unused comb in the bottommost
box for a reason - they want a better dance floor - don't scrap it.
b) That wax foundation is crucial in at least the broodnest to allow the
"tuning of the resonance" of the dancefloor comb.
c) That plastic foundation, even in wooden frames, might limit forager
recruitment to new or alternate sources of groceries.
d) That (c) might not matter much to the migratory guys, who plop the bees
right in the middle of what they are expected to work.
e) That plastic foundation in plastic frames are a worst-case scenario for
the transmission of bee-dance vibrations.
f) That for yet another reason, deeps ("large commercial combs") are B.A.D.
(Broken As Designed).
g) That, if static charges were mission-critical to bees' communication,
those hives that take up in 55-gallon drums should quickly starve - they are
living in well-grounded Faraday cages! :)
And Jerry, there is no conflict between your "give the bees an overpowering
odor" work, and dance language. I love my little GPS, but I wouldn't need
it to find the McCormick spice factory in Baltimore, or the Hershey
Chocolate plant in Hershey, PA, or Eli Zabar's bakery on the upper east side
of Manhattan. All I need to do is open the sunroof and follow my nose. But
lacking powerful odors, I'll use my GPS. Likewise bees, are not stupid
enough to ignore odor cues when they are available, but lacking odor cues,
and/or when navigating over longer distances, they'll use the sun and
landmarks, and dance about their finds with decent accuracy no matter how
they found the site.
Now, we've "sparked" a thoughtful discussion that will end up in a debate
over the merits of grounding rods for screened bottom boards!
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