# How do bees see and what do they see inside the dark of their nest??????



## TIMER (Apr 17, 2011)

How do we really know they dance in the dark? Maybe they only dance when light is present.


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I'm sure it's a combination of feeling it with their antennae (they stand close enough to) and feeling the vibration on the comb.


----------



## Riverratbees (Feb 10, 2010)

I was told that the bees since the vibrations with thier antenna. I asked a similiar question at the va state bee meeting last year. The professor who aswered the question told me they have observed the bees in obsevation hives. He also said get a stethascope and listen you can really here the vibrations in the hive. He said tap the hive and listen to the difference in sound. Stick the scope in the hive and the sound of the vibrations are even more pronounced. That is what I was told I will do the same and see what others say excellent ??


----------



## WI-beek (Jul 14, 2009)

They use radar!


----------



## pascopol (Apr 23, 2009)

We know bees use GPS (solar edition) outside of the hive, inside they probably use radar, infrared, ultrasound, or perhaps some specific fenomen not dicsovered by humans yet. LOL

The truth is nobody knows for sure I guess.


----------



## misslechunker (May 26, 2010)

It is quiet simple, really. The US military has been utilizing it for years. Nightvision goggles. They keep them stored inside of empty queen cells. Each day, the queen sends a very pungent pheromone to the nurse bee's who are to wear them that particular day. I am surprised some of the "seasoned" beeks failed to mention this fact!


----------



## Bonterra Bees (Aug 30, 2009)

You ask a lot of intriguing questions. From our experience; we all think we know a lot about Bees, however at Bon Terra Bees we are found of saying: 
_"You can't think like a bee you can only watch them think". _
Viewing your Bees in an Observation Hive will teach you a lot, you'll actually Bee able to study their intimate behavior, watching them communicate with their antenna and by feel. It becomes obvious they can work without light and so many other things become clear.
Our Observation Hives are created for a Feral Colony and we think all bees are basically Feral and they have been for thousands of years, maybe changing very slowly. Man has learned how to get honey from them but Man still doesn't know much about the "life style" of this marvelous, indispensable creature.
www.bonterrabees.com

_"I've learned a great deal from Bees, I don't think they've learned any thing from me" _


----------



## valleyman (Nov 24, 2009)

:lpf:I agree with misslechunker!
I've seen them with them on (I think), when some of them left the hive with them still on. Maybe I'd just been stung too many times that day or was very tired. 
I don't know anyone that has ever been in the hive to observe exactly how they communicate in the dark, so this is my story and I'm sticking to it.


----------



## Ted Kretschmann (Feb 2, 2011)

If they are wearing night vision googles, then what spectrum of light are they seeing in???? I write this seriously.....It is known that bees see in a broader spectrum of light than we as human could ever perceive. Honey bees use ultra violet light when foraging.......TK


----------



## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

I have a few videos that do a great job explaining some of it using infrared/ultra violet high deg cameras set up both inside of hives and in flight paths and flowers... pretty neat stuff. Let me see if I can locate them and I will upload them to the video section of my site and post a link here.


----------



## pascopol (Apr 23, 2009)

I don't think ultraviolet light can penetrate wooden hives walls .

However infrared light is emitted by any object with temperature diffrential higher that surrounding air mass or whatever gas or fluid it is.

So if bees can see infrared like they see ultraviolet, they simply see each other inside the hive cause their body emits infrared.


----------



## Ted Kretschmann (Feb 2, 2011)

Hmm? So if they are giving off heat, and we know they do. Then each individual bee is like a "candle" in its own way??......TK


----------



## Tohya (Apr 6, 2011)

AFAIK bees can not see infrared or red, but can see ultra violet. If they could see IR they wouldn't be crawling around on the ground at night.

They may pick up vibrations and feel their way around using their antennae.


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

If you look at the spectrum and what we see and what bees see it is a range. Here are all the colors:

Infra Red/Red/Orange/Yellow/Green/Blue/Indigo/Violet/Ultra Vilolet

Humans see from Red to Violet.
Bees see from Orange to Ultra Violet. They can't even see red, let alone Infra Red.


----------



## HONEYDEW (Mar 9, 2007)

Michael Bush said:


> They can't even see red, let alone Infra Red.


 then why aren't bee-suits red???


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Some are. Some even orange. They see reds and oranges as we see black. Black like bears? White is cheap and less "threatening"(?). 

Plus, traditionally, would bkprs wish to wear yellow? Meaning, when suits were developed, men wouldn't wear yellow, most likely. So, yellow suits wouldn't sell as well as white.

Suits are made for bkprs, in colors and fabrics that are coolest and nonthreatening to the bees and other reasons.

I have and see red hives all the time, tho white is the traditional color of them.

As far as the inside and what bees see. Maybe it doesn't have anything to do w/ sight. Maybe the waggle tail dance is the bee giving off scent in a pattern that othwer bees can detect and understand to mean something. I don't know. Interesting question.


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

You can't see black because it's not a color. Red just looks like black if you can't see it, which the bees cannot. Black is not a good color for a bee suit, so red isn't either...


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

That absence of color thing always throws me off. But the presence of all colors doesn't bother me all that much.

I think when it comes to light and it's color, it is quite different from color as we normally think about it. More accurately, perhaps, refered to as pigment.

I still think we need to look/think about how bees perceive their environment before we can come up w/ any idea how they "see" in the dark. Knowing and undewrstanding don't always need eyesight.


----------



## HONEYDEW (Mar 9, 2007)

OK, pink as a beesuit was never gonna happen for me, and now I can scratch off red also...Thanks


----------

