Is it true that bees never sleep?
Bees are very hardworking animals. It is enough for us to observe them to understand at least in part that their work during the day never ends.
The world of bees is governed by too perfect mechanisms of collaboration and division of roles with surprising rhythms. Some have come to believe that bees didn't sleep at all. In reality this is not exactly the case. They too, like all animals, have physiological rhythms that require moments of rest.
The rest of the bees
The rest of bees , however, is not exactly like ours or that of other living beings and occurs for very specific reasons. The night nap serves them to carry out important tasks that require greater efficiency in execution.
First of all, it must be said that in worker bees , the duration and quality of sleep are strongly influenced by the role they play in the hive. In fact, according to their task, bees will be able to afford or not to rest for a short time. Later we will analyze how the various tasks are divided in a swarm and what are the essential elements for the survival of a hive .
Queen bees and worker bees
Within a swarm or a family of bees , the queen bee has always played the most important role in the whole hive. Her work is solely directed towards the spawning which never stops for months. The queen bees are capable of producing more than 1500 eggs per day! The birth of all these new individuals will cause the swarm to grow and keep it strong for survival. At the same time, the role of the workers is equally essential. They are divided into sub-groups operating in different categories of duties. The primary essence of their work is always to keep the queen in an optimal state of health and to protect the hive . A queen bee without her workers would not be able to develop or survive alone, not even at the adult stage.
The functioning of the hive, as we have seen, requires tireless work and strong operation. Despite this, even our beloved workers need short breaks for rest.
Bees sleep too: but why?
Before 1983, there was no knowledge that bees slept. After careful studies by experienced biologists, we have obtained a great deal of information. In fact, scientists have become very passionate about this aspect of the life of small workers.
You may be wondering why bees sleep . Researchers have shown that sleep is not so much necessary for bees to conserve their energy as to allow them to perform their physiological functions correctly. Among these functions we find above all their orientation which works through a method called " bee dance ".
Energy for orientation
The bee dance is made up of a series of circular movements of flight used by bees as a form of communication. When the bees go in search of food, they then return to the hive to tell the swarm where to go to access the nectar source.
Well, to communicate the place where the group must go, the bees perform this set of dancing aerial movements, which serve to indicate precisely, based on the angle and the number of turns made, the direction in which to continue . It is a truly fascinating form of communication. According to the scientists it would be a rather tiring task for the bees who would need more energy to perform it accurately.
In fact, during the movements both the direction and the distance to the food source are indicated and inaccuracy could provide an inaccurate position. Bees orient themselves thanks to the sunlight, being able to perceive the cardinal points through the position of the latter. The bees are also able to detect the position of the sun even on days of overcast and cloudy skies as they can perceive the polarized light coming from the rays of light.
The bees sleep for a few minutes over a period of time ranging from 1 to a maximum of 15 minutes. Studies have shown that memory consolidation processes occur during sleep related to the position of nectar sources, to the memorization of odors and to other details relating to the flowers they foraged. The rest is therefore also useful to them for greater lucidity and for a good preservation of memory.
The roles of bees in the hive
As already mentioned, rest in the hive is not for everyone and depends on the roles played in the family. The nurse bees for example, do not have time to rest because during the day but also during the night they take care of nourishing the larvae present in the cells. Unlike them, explorer and forager bees have a little more time for a night's rest.
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