Bee Learning
Here’s an example of how the information a bee gathers on the outside gets inside and becomes a memory.
How does the bee respond to the information it’s taking in?
Expand the boxes below to see how the bee collects information with its senses and stores that information in the brain to make decisions about flowers to visit and to leave.
The bee approaches a flower. The flower’s shape makes it hard to get the pollen and nectar. The bee flies away.
The bee returns to the flower. The flower’s shape makes it hard to get the pollen and nectar. The bee flies away.
The sensory information from this experience goes into the bee’s brain each time the bee lands on the flower.
Light receptors in the eye send information to the brain. Memory of the how the flower looks cues a signal from the brain to the wings: Don’t like it. Fly away.
Scent receptors in the antennae send information to the brain. Memory of the how the flower smells cues a signal from the brain to the wings: Don’t like it. Fly away.
Touch receptors in the legs send information to the brain. Memory of the shape of the flower cues a signal from the brain to the wings: Don’t like it. Fly away.
Now the bee can process the memory instead of landing on the flower to choose its actions.
WATCH THIS!
This slideshow takes us through the process of how a bee learns using sensory receptors to take in information from the senses and how the bee responds to that information.
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NARRATOR: The bee has spotted a flower and flies close to explore it. But this flower doesn’t have what the bee likes. The bee flies away.
The next day, the bee sees the same flower and flies close to explore it. But this flower doesn’t have what the bee likes. The bee flies away.
Each time the bee explores the flower, it’s collecting information with its senses and storing that information in the brain.
Light receptors in the bee’s eyes send information to the brain. The memory of how the flower looks cues the brain to tell the wings: I don’t like this. Fly away.
Scent receptors in the bee’s antennae send information to the brain. The memory of how the flower smells cues the brain to tell the wings: I don’t like this. Fly away.
Touch receptors in the bee’s legs send information to the brain. The memory of the flower cues a signal from the brain to the wings: I don’t like this: Fly away.
Each experience with the flower gets stored as a memory.
Now the bee can process the memory instead of landing on the flower to choose its actions.
The bee has learned to fly this flower it doesn’t like. It will fly on to a flower it does like.
WATCH THIS!
Now you know how bees pick flowers! Watch the following video to learn about city bees finding their way to a rooftop garden.
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[Music]
Lindsey Allen - all right we are up on the Boston
Medical Center rooftop farm my name is
Lindsey Allen I'm the farm manager here
and today we have a special treat we're
with our beekeeper Myles green and I
just want to talk to you a little bit
about our bees like what they're doing
here and then we'll actually go over to
the hives and take a look at the miles
we'll walk us through the process of
taking care of our bees up here on the
roof for me as a farmer there's a lot of
reasons like why I want to have these up
here and I'm curious for you what it
means to have bees on a farm or for
people though why we want to keep these
Myles Green - so a lot of folks asked me if I keep the
honeybees and I say yeah well I keep
honeybees and they keep me actually and
they keep all of us yeah
because the honeybees provide an
essential pollination service to the
farm here and to all farms in general so
there are two hives here at the farm and
at the peak of the summer season there's
about 80 to 100 thousand honeybees in
each of the hives and each honeybee in
the course of its lifetime will produce
about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey
So little it takes so much work and the
bees will fly around for you know on
average about a mile radius tough
pollinate and to gather the pollen and
the nectar that is used to feed the
brood inside the hive and then to make
honey from the nectar.
Lindsey Allen - and we've harvested now
at what like 96 pounds of
honey does the season
Myles Green - I think that's
right, we have some busy
bees here highly productive and one of
the hives here is the most productive
high eleven ever managed so it's been a
real pleasure to be here all right well.
Lindsey Allen - let's go and actually look at the hives
open them up and take a look yes
Myles Green - hey, Lindsey I just have to change into my
outfit.
All right so we're at the beehives here
at the rooftop farm and we're going to
take a look inside this hive here and
see how they're doing
so I'm going to blow a little smoke in
and around the hive just to let them
know that I'm here
just going to say hi for a second and
see how you're doing
I'm looking for the Queen on the top of
the box here it's very rare that she's
on the top here but just as a matter of
practice I want to check to make sure I
don't see her all right so this frame
looks really nice it's full of honey all
this is the capped cells of honey on top
all preserved for they're consuming over
the winter time and the honey is the
food that they need to survive the
winter so the four or five months or
more when there are no flowers in bloom
I can see already that that this hive is
really really healthy and is ready for
the winter.
Lindsey Allen - all right thanks so much for
coming up here and talking to us about
bees and their importance to our food
systems and to our larger ecosystems as
well if you have any comments for us
about the either the farm feel free to
leave them in the comment section below
and thanks so much for tuning in and
have a beautiful day
[Music]
