> As I have said before, in my view, sound perception and "hearing" 
> are not the same thing. Following Alexander Luria, 

> "In order to hear and understand what is said, one must be able 
> to recognize the different sounds."

Well, bees clearly can recognize the specific sound of queen piping, which
is a fairly unique and highly consistent set of musical notes (G-sharp and
A-natural).  They recognize this well enough to "freeze" to listen.  Other
notes, even closely adjacent ones like G-natural and B-flat (same as
"A-sharp"), even frequencies that are off by more than a few hertz will not
catch their attention.

A-natural is 440 Hz, that's the "tuning up note" that all orchestras use,
which is what struck me when I first hear queen piping.  G-sharp is 415
point something hertz.  As I remember, more than 10 or 20 Hz off, and the
bees ignored the "queen piping" as a random sound.

So, while some beekeepers may not understand, the bees certainly do.

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