The Power of Collective Intelligence in Bees

We had an amazing day exploring the fascinating world of ants in my previous post, and today, let's delve deeper into the remarkable collective intelligence of Bees. Bees truly exemplify the saying 'Two heads are better than one.' My mom often emphasizes the power of collective thinking, highlighting how humans have accomplished incredible feats by working together. Bees, too, possess this collective mindset known as the Hive Mind, which plays a vital role in their daily activities.

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One of the fascinating ways bees communicate and make decisions is through nest-based communication. You might have heard about the famous 'bee dance.' It's remarkable how bees utilize dance to share vital information such as the location, distance, and quality of food sources, as well as potential dangers they encounter. This unique form of communication enables them to coordinate their efforts effectively.

While not all bee species are social animals, honeybees, particularly the common Apis mellifera, live in highly organized societies. Similar to ants, honeybees have a Queen, reproductive female workers, and fertile males called Drones. When you observe a bee hive, you can witness hundreds or even thousands of bees working together, communicating tirelessly to achieve their goals.

Before 1944, scientists had a limited understanding of how bees communicated the location and type of food to their colony. It was believed that bees relied on the scent of individual bees to begin their search for food. However, Nobel prize winner Karl Von Frisch revolutionized our understanding when he discovered that bees communicate directions rather than scents. He identified the waggle dance, a unique dance performed by bees to communicate the location, distance, and potential threats associated with a food source. The duration and angle of the waggle run in the dance determine the distance and direction with respect to the sun. Additionally, bees use the 'Tremble Dance' to communicate the arrival of foragers with abundant nectar and the need to convert it into honey.

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Food communication is just one aspect of bees' remarkable abilities. Bees can communicate on various matters, and they exhibit democratic decision-making. In 1951, an interesting bee debate was observed involving two nest-scout bees. One bee reported a nest site 1500 meters to the north, while the other indicated a location 300 meters to the southeast. The following day, another set of bees engaged in dancing communication. Three bees supported the 1500-meter location, two bees favored the 300-meter spot, and six bees suggested an entirely different site. Over time, as the bees gathered more information and reached a consensus, they focused on the 300-meter southeast direction, eventually building their swarm in the wall of an abandoned building.

This research revealed the democratic nature of bees' social lives and their ability to achieve collective goals through consensus. Bees work together harmoniously, as if they were a single entity, showcasing their remarkable coordination.

When we examine three fundamental laws—the Weber-Fechner's law, Hick's law, and Pieron's law—we can observe how bees follow these principles when making decisions. They adhere to Weber's law by selecting the best options that offer the highest quality, noticing changes in stimuli. Following Hick's law, bees take longer to decide when presented with more choices, and they make quicker decisions when preferences are reduced, aligning with Pieron's law.

Reference

• (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10739-005-0552-1)
• (https://askabiologist.asu.edu/bee-dance-game/introduction.html)
• (http://beekeeperstraining.com/file2/source/books/69.pdf)
• (https://hadinur1969.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/thomas_d_seeley-honeybee_democracy_-princeton_univ.pdf)
• (https://phys.org/news/2023-06-reveals-honey-bee-resilient.html)
• (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249387/)
• (https://www.tutorialspoint.com/weber-and-fechner-s-law)
• (https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/hick-s-law-making-the-choice-easier-for-users)