Study: Queen bees have types of sounds according to the stage they are going through

The queen lays two thousand eggs a day and virgin royal bees fight to the death

Honey production and beekeeping expert and director of Miracle of Healing Company, Muhammad Qasim Al-Mujaddidi, said: Scientists were able to study the sounds made by bees and how they respond to each type using devices installed inside the hive. The results of their research were amazing and explain wonders in the bee community, as it was shown that bees do not only make the buzzing sound that we hear, but the queen bee has types of sounds according to the stage they are going through in their lives, and each type has a meaning that the rest of the hive knows. For example, the royal larva throughout its presence in the brood continues to make a gurgling sound resulting from the vibration that occurs to its body in the brood. With this sound, the worker bees learn that this brood contains a living and growing royal larva. When the larva is fully grown, it makes its way out of the brood as a virgin royal bee and fixes its six legs in the brood and continues to direct pressures from its chest towards the brood cover to produce a trumpeting sound. When it hears it The workers know that the virgin queen has emerged and rush to increase the coverage of the rest of the broods with wax to prevent other queens from emerging at the same time.

He added: The virgin queen makes rounds inside the hive and continues to make a trumpet sound in order to alert the colony of her arrival and her desire to obtain individuals from the workers and males to form a colony of her own. When she achieves this, the virgin queen leaves the original hive with the individuals of her own colony to search for a place to take as a colony for them. This process is called swarming. When the virgin queen leaves the hive with her followers, the trumpet sound stops and from that the remaining bees learn that the new queen has emerged, so they leave room for the rest of the royal larvae to split the brood and emerge from it as a queen to repeat the same cycle.

He added: The worker bees allow this swarming process to be repeated four times because the queen bee lays two thousand eggs daily, which provides a large number of worker bees, but after four times, the worker bees realize that the number of them will not be enough for another swarm, and then they allow all the royal larvae to split the brood and leave it, and the danger occurs when the virgin royal bees fight to the death, except for the strongest queen who remains to take over the leadership of the colony with the remaining workers and males.

He concluded: The life of bees is truly amazing and complex, and yet it proceeds with inspiration from God, who facilitates for each type of bee to play the role that facilitates it.

References:
• M-T. Ramsey et al. The prediction of swarming in honeybee colonies using vibrational spectra. Scientific Reports. Vol. 10. June 16, 2020. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-66115-5.

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