HONEY BEE HOARDING BEHAVIOR - EFFECTS OF PREVIOUS STIMULATION BY EMPTY COMB

Hoarding experiments were performed utilizing the transfer of honey bees (Apis mellifera) from cages with large or small amounts of empty honeycomb to cages with equal, greater, or lesser amounts. Results confirmed that empty comb stimulates hoarding. Furthermore, bees that were transferred from a small to a greater amount of comb hoarded significantly more than control bees, indicating that stimulus deprivation followed by stimulus enrichment increases the strength of the hoarding response. © 1979.