| How do honeybees control temperature of the nest? |
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People often ask me whether honeybees hibernate or not. Generally body temperature of insects depends on the air temperature. Those insects cannot survive winter season, under 10. Adults die, then they overcome in their special phase, like pupae or eggs and in next spring their life is succeeded to the next generation. Among the insects, some butterflies and hornets survive as the imagos in suspended death condition.
Differing from those insects, honeybees are active in the nest even in cold winter. Then, if it is over 10, they go to outside of the nest to collect honey and pollen. Honeybees can control temperature of the nest.
Temperature of an area in the nest, where the larvae lives, is kept at 33 - 36. At low temperature honeybees get together in the nest and move their muscle of the thoraxes to emit heat. The center of the bee ball is kept about 35 even at cold time.
Meanwhile, when the temperature is too high, they come out of the entrance and exchange the air of inside with outside of the nest by vibrating the wings. Pose at this time is different between western and Japanese honeybees. Japanese honeybee does it facing the head to outside (cool wind goes in the nest from outside), and western honeybee faces the head to the entrance (hot wind go outside from the nest). Japanese honeybee avoids to be noticed by hornet by this method. For more hot weather, they spray water on the nest and they stay outside to make better air stream.
It has been believed that bees cannot survive in open space
fanning behavior of A.cerana cool oneself in the evening A.cerana In the temperate zone, where the temperature in winter is rather cold for honeybees, even though the honeybees have such a temperature controlling ability, people have considered that they cannot live in the open space. They can survive only in closed space in the temperate zone. If it is true, how honeybees live with the nests in the open space in the city area.
