A few sharp-eyed folk walking have noticed dead & stumbling #bees on the paths around @Aust_Parliament and have asked what is going on. The answer is alcohol!
As the weather heats up, the nectar in some Australian flowers will ferment, making the foragers drunk.
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Usually this makes them a bit wobbly, and if they come back to the #beehive drunk the guards will turn them away until they sober up.
Unfortunately these girls had a bit too much, and have died from the alcohol.
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The drunk #bees are kept out of the hive to stop the honey from fermenting inside, which could hurt the whole colony.
However, once the honey is finished, you can use it to make some wonderful alcohol, which here @Aust_Parliament we do!
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Fun fact - the word 'honeymoon' references an old custom where the bride's father was required to provide the groom as much honey mead as he could drink for a full moon cycle.
Thankfully in modern times fewer of us start our marriages with a month of heavy drinking.
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One interesting thing i have noticed - this problem seems to only affect the (introduced, exotic) honeybee. I have not seen native bees impacted, and Australia has over 2000 native #bee species. Any ideas/insights ?
We also know that the colonies are OK because we have online sensors monitoring them - click on the link and you can even hear the sound inside the hive:
bit.ly/2pSKxZ7
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Unsure whether the lack of reports of native Aus bees getting inebriated is due to lack of looking (after all, it was only recently that this was investigated in honeybees, and native bees get hardly any attention), or because they don't (either their physiology or Aus nectar)
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Tetranogula would be really hard to spot on the paths, but those trees have lots of Blue Banded and Teddy Bear Bees hanging around them, which would stand out even more than the honeybees. I will have a look next time I am up.
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Hi sorry I’m such a noob on Twitter and get “lost” in threads... what problem are you referring to please ?
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Bees getting drunk on fermented nectar. Happens every spring when the Ironbark flowers hit just the right combo of heat and humidity.
We just noticed that the honeybees are the only ones that it seems to impact.
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They like a lot if Australians are used to alcohol so it doesn't affect them anymore?
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yes, interesting behaviour. Not a lot of research on mechanisms behind this, potentially an interaction between temperature & nectar yeasts. I've only seen it in honey bees, but I've heard reports of bumblebees doing same. would know about stingless bees
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It's definitely a thing with honeybees:
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