I have a copy of the video itself (without commentary) if anyone is interested.
The idea that this behaviour, and presumably others, are dependent on hive
geometry I find of great significance. The hive is effectively the skin of the
bee organism and if one is in the wrong skin one cannot express one’s true
self. A big jump, but consider how humans feel if they are in a body which is
the wrong gender; they feel they do not fit in their skin. In my prison
teaching one of the prisoners I knew started to go through gender
re-assignment. When I first saw him/her in a dress he/she was transformed;
happy and glowing rather than sad and downcast. "For the first time in my life
I feel I am being who I really am". It left a strong impression on me.
Gareth
On 6 Sep 2019, at 11:54, Oxnatbees <oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Stefan Grunert, a Norwegian, has posted this 2.5 minute video of Torben
Schiffer talking at the Learning from the Bees conference:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUya5YxcmS0
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUya5YxcmS0>
Luckily for us he has added English subtitles. It is VERY interesting. On
it, Torben shows video taken with a high resolution endoscope inside a hive
simulating a tree cavity* - a vertical tube with plenty of space below the
combs.
It is worth watching twice because the first time, you are trying to figure
out what you're seeing, as the view is from BELOW the combs.
Points of interest:
Bees washboarding inside the hive, cleaning/drying the walls to prevent
mould, and probably preparatory to propolising it;
A web of bees below the combs acts as a guard-mob, probably allowing them to
ball hornets. They certainly ball wasps;
These are not special bees, they were from a framed hive. This behaviour is
enabled by the hive geometry but suppressed in normal hives.
Paul
