Division of labour in the honeybee community

Abstract

Newly emerged bees in a colony were individually marked, and their foraging activities were studied by subsequent observations at the hive entrance. A few individuals gathered pollen throughout their foraging lives; a considerable number gathered none at all. Most of the bees gathered pollen at some time, but there was great diversity in the part of the foraging life at which this occurred. There was considerable variation in the age at which different bees, emerging on the same day and living in the same colony, commenced foraging; this age ranged from 9 to 35 days. This variation was produced not only by altering the duration of the various hive duties, but also by omitting some of these duties. Such variation indicates that the division of labour is not determined by the age of the available workers. It is controlled, instead, by the requirements of the colony. The ages of the bees in the colony play a subsidiary role, in that the duties of any individual are the resultant of the requirements of the colony and age of that individual. The requirements of the colony are determined by its food supply, and they are appreciated by the individual as a consequence of widespread food transmission. Food transmission is therefore the most primitive and the most important method of communication in the honeybee colony. The duration of foraging life was significantly shorter in those bees which commenced foraging at a later age. This result indicates that senility played a part in determining the longevity of these bees.