Some work at Rothamsted on the social behaviour of honeybees

Abstract

I am very grateful for this opportunity to discuss some of the work that has been carried out in the Bee Research Department at Rothamsted in recent years. The department is a small one, with a scientific staff of eight, and we are concerned with three main lines of research. First, with work on insect pollination of crops, which involves investigation of such problems as: bee/flower relationships; the foraging behaviour of individual bees, including solitary bees and bumblebees as well as honeybees; the influence of physical and biological factors of the environ­ment on bee activity; and communication between honeybees and their recruit­ment to particular crops. Secondly, with problems of practical beekeeping other than disease, problems such as: colony management ; bee breeding ; queen rearing and introduction; swarming, etc. And, thirdly, with the control of diseases both of the larval and adult honeybee: diseases which are caused by bacteria, protozoa, mites, fungi, and, in one case at least, by a virus. This latter part of the department’s work is, of course, rather different from the rest and is carried out by Dr L. Bailey and his assistants, who are obtaining some very interesting and useful results.