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By: David Burns
The United States is celebrating its Semiquincentennial, marking 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. One thing that always makes a great 4th of July celebration is fireworks, and lots of them! I love a good fireworks show. My family has always chosen different places to watch the fireworks from year to year.
One year we decided to stay home because we can actually enjoy fireworks from a nearby town. We live on some acreage in the country, and we waited until it was almost dark enough and then we walked to a place where we had the best viewing spot for the fireworks. It happened to be in the middle of about 50 colonies.
The bees were all in their hives for the night so we could safely stand in the middle of all the hives. But we observed something very interesting happening. With every firework that was launched, the “boom” caused all colonies to noticeably let out a loud buzz! Between fireworks they were silent. But with every firework explosion the entire yard made a loud roar for about 5 seconds and then they would calm down. The town was several miles away, but the sound disturbed my bees. So much so, that during the grand finale I had to keep a close eye on the hives to make sure the guard bees didn’t launch a counterattack or come boiling out looking for whoever lit the fuse.
Honey bees are amazing in so many ways. For creatures without ears, they sure can hear well. I have one hive that can hear my lawnmower a mile away. Speaking of lawn mowers, never challenge honey bees to a race while on a riding mower. They corner better, accelerate faster, and have terrible attitudes. How are they able to hear so well?
Honey bees do not hear sounds the way we do as humans. Their “hearing” is primarily through a Johnston’s organ and other vibration sensitive structures that allow them to detect sounds such as fireworks, lawnmowers and other sounds. The Johnston’s organ is their main apparatus for detecting sound. It is found on the second segment of the antenna and detects vibrations and sound waves in the air. They also have receptors in their legs and mechanoreceptors and even sensory hairs. Honey bees have such sophisticated ways of detecting sound, that the sound of faraway fireworks can travel miles, traveling through solid wood hive boxes and be picked up by tiny, highly sensitive receptors of honey bees. The comb itself can act much like a sound board or speaker. Within a colony there are many vibrations that occur on the comb such as the footsteps of the bees, queen piping, waggle dances and more.
I’ve heard beekeepers say that their bees can recognize their voice perhaps through vibration patterns, so they talk to their bees. Many beekeepers tell me they talk to their bees. I’ve talked to my bees a few times, but usually it’s something like, “Please show me your queen,” or “Okay girls, calm down, I’m trying to help you.”
Knowing that bees are sensitive to unusual noises, when I inspect my hives I work hard to avoid making loud noises or clumsy movements. To a colony, a clumsy and loud inspection can feel more like an earthquake. They will let you know they are not happy.
How do we deal with our bees’ sensitivity to sound and still take care of the necessary things we need to accomplish like mowing and weed eating around our hives and taking off honey supers? When I weed eat, I try very hard not to let the spinning string strike the hive stand. This translates the vibration up and into the comb of the bees and can excite them. Placing old carpet or materials under your hive and allowing it to extend out several feet minimizes how close you have to trim. When mowing, I make fast passes in one direction being careful to go past a hive as fast as I can. I make wide circles on the mower before I head back in for a close pass.
When I remove my honey supers I try to use either a fume board or a bee brush to remove bees from capped honey frames. Over the years I’ve tried blowing the bees off with leaf blowers and compressed air. Even though this works, it is noisy.
Let’s face it, some colonies are much more sensitive to noise than other colonies. You will learn quickly which hives require a calm, quiet approach while others are more forgiving of excess noises and careless movements.
A good rule of thumb is to always start off being as calm and quiet around your bees as possible. If you know you must be more forceful or operate loud equipment around your bees make sure you wear the necessary protective gear once you activate the Johnston’s organ alarm.
If you’d like to watch my video where I explore this topic more visit: https://www.honeybeesonline.com/davids-youtube-channel/
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