Opinions on Honey Bee Morale

"Why feed sugar syrup? To stimulate pollen collection, brood rearing and improve the morale of the colonies generally. Our preference for a feeding rate of 2.5 bags per 200 litre drum did not see the bees storing the syrup, we have never seen bees cap cells of sugar syrup. At no time have we ever fed "thick" syrup for stores, preferring always to leave honey on hives for stores." ref 1

"On her first day as a queen, she will learn the basic layout of the colony, where the egg laying cells are and she will pick up the improved morale due to her successful birth. She is escorted around the hive, and during this time she meets with many of the workers as they frantically clean cells for the expected "egg laying" that the queen will do over the many months and years ahead." ref 2

These two quotes show that the term *morale* is commonly applied to honeybees. Whether it is *anthropomorphic* or not depends on what you mean by this term. It commonly refers to applying human attributes to non-human entities, like laughing cows or an evil wind. But the term implies that humans have characteristics that other creatures do not, which is being called into question.

Obviously, humans are more intelligent, and have more complex languages and emotions than most other creatures. Also obvious is the fact that consciousness in animals cannot at this time be *proved*. But then, it can't be disproved and can't really even be proved in humans (we *think* we're conscious but some have noted that this may be an illusion or a form of *virtual reality* which *represents* the actual).

About bees and other animals, many terms can be applied to them such as health, vigor, aggresiveness, or stupor, without anyone invoking *anthropomorphism*. But when we move over to joy, sorrow, fear, and demoralization -- we get into disputed territory. How to know? First, following Donald Griffin's work, we can dispense with the notion that if it can't be proved, it doesn't exist. ref 3

Gravity existed long before there was a word for it, molecules existed long before their existence could be proved. If we assume that animals have no thoughts or feelings, how will we ever know? Keep an open mind, is what it is. So, when I say "my dog is glad to see me" what is wrong here? Do I know the dog is glad? There is communication going on between me and the dog. I do know she is glad. I know how she likes to be petted and what she likes to do for fun.

About bees: beekeepers know when their bees are irritable or at ease. We know that when the queen dies, they become *demoralized* or *despondent*. We don't know *how* they feel these things, but we do know what we mean by them. If I am raising queens it is important to have the colonies in good condition to get good results. One thing that has been observed is that queen-right hives generally do more and better work on cells (and everything else) than queenless hives. And in order to simulate this "attitude" beekeepers using queenless hives have to continually add bees from queen-right hives, to keep up the morale. And a large hive with no laying queen is often the meanest type.

ref 1:
Your Bees Are What You Feed Them!  By Charlie Stevens
http://www.honeybee.com.au/Library/ca.html

ref 2:
The Honeybee Queen: a look at an amazing egg laying machine
http://www.beemaster.com/honeybee/qpage.htm

ref 3:
Animal Minds, Donald R. Griffin, 1992, University of Chicago Press