Vibration of Queen Cells by Worker Honeybees and its Relation to the Issue of Swarms with Virgin Queens

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Abstract
Summary In 4 honeybee colonies (Apis mellifera adansonii) where the workers did not perform vibratory dances on emergency queen cells, the first queen to emerge attacked the other queen cells. The queens were not themselves vibrated until they had destroyed these cells, and they did not pipe. On average they matured in 7 days 2 h after their cells were sealed. In 3 other colonies the workers vibrated emergency queen cells, and this behaviour was associated with imprisonment of most of the queens, piping by one of the first queens to emerge, and swarming. Typically, the number of vibratory dances performed rose to a peak on all cells at about the time the first queens matured. The number then dropped sharply when a free queen began to pipe, but rose to a new peak in the absence of piping when that queen left the hive with a swarm. Some of the workers vibrated individual cells at an increased rate while other workers were resealing cuts made in the cell caps by the queens in them. It was concluded that both vibratory dances and queen piping play a role in the imprisonment of queens through inhibition, although other mechanisms were also involved. Vibration of queen cells and of workers on them, as well as of free virgin queens, also appeared to protect the cells from attack. If virgin queens were vibrated in the presence of imprisoned queens, they piped and were sometimes chased by the workers. On the other hand virgin queens that were not vibrated did not pipe and remained quietly in the lower part of the hive. Piping may therefore be interpreted as a “displacement activity” caused by conflicting activating and inhibiting stimuli. The three colonies in which queen cells were vibrated produced 4 swarms, 2 of which were accompanied by more than one virgin queen. Some of the supernumerary queens emerged before swarming, and others emerged while the bees were leaving the hive. The data presented are all consistent with the “inhibition hypothesis” concerning the function of vibratory dances.