SCENT LANGUAGE OF HONEY BEES — RIBBANDS 373 



mixture of foods taken into any hive is evenly shared among all the 

 bees in that hive. For these experiments, radioactive sugar prepared 

 by the Radiochemical Centre at Amersham was used. The experi- 

 mental procedure for these experiments is quite simple. A marked 

 bee is trained to collect sugar solution from a small glass tube, and 

 when radioactive sugar is substituted the bee proceeds to collect the 

 radioactive syrup quite happily. The bee now carrying its fill of 

 radioactive sugar returns to the hive, and what happens to that 

 "labeled" sugar after it enters the hive can be followed with com- 

 parative ease. Every bee that receives some of the radioactive sugar 

 can be spotted by means of a Geiger counter. By collecting a sample 

 of bees from the hive one can discover what proportion of the colony 

 has acquired some of the radioactive sugar, and by taking periodical 

 samples it becomes possible to find out the rate at which the sugar 

 is being distributed through the colony. Some striking results have 

 already been obtained in this way, and published. Other experiments, 

 which promise to give even more exciting results, are still in progress. 

 We now know that one stomachful of radioactive sugar can be shared 

 among almost all the bees in a large colony. The experiments with 

 radioactive sugar have also indicated that this sharing is a random 

 affair ; the sugar is passed on irrespective of the recipient's age or of 

 its occupation. 



These facts about the food-sharing habit help to explain the results 

 of the field experiments on bees' scent. The floral nectars and pollens 

 brought into any colony contain the different and distinctive scents of 

 the different flowers from which they come. When those foods have 

 been digested, derivatives of those chemicals that account for the vari- 

 ous floral scents accumulate in the scent glands of the bees, and because 

 each bee in that colony has received a more or less equal share of each 

 find every item of food reaching the hive, each bee will produce a simi- 

 lar scent. 



THE DIFFERENT FOOD SUPPLIES OF NEIGHBORING COLONIES 



The food-sharing experiments showed how the bees in any one colony 

 come to share the same foods, and so to produce the same odor, but this 

 is only one of the conditions necessary before the food-derived odors 

 will enable the bees to distinguish between the scent of their com- 

 panions and that of the honey bees of other colonies. 



Of equal importance, the bees of different colonies must obtain 

 different mixtures of foods. Why should this happen, even if the 

 colonies happen to be living in the same apiary ? 



In each colony many thousands of bees are collecting food supplies, 

 and if these bees foraged quite independently neighboring colonies 

 would obtain almost identical mixtures. However, the well-known 



