Okay, so you thought I was a little crazy in my last post when I mentioned a sound I heard inside the hive.(photo of the new hatched piping queen, presumed to be unmated, in Hive #2).
I said it sounded like the word "ouch" being said over and over really fast, faster and then slowing down, kind of like an ocillating fan.
Well, here's my proof that yes I'm a little crazy but here's the sounds of a queen piping and at the very end you can hear the ouch sound I'm going on and on about.
It's on U Tube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBlI1sgczVY (God bless that man for providing proof that I'm not completely crazy).
As you listen, when you approach the 7:26 mark on the recording and again at the 9:00 you'll start to hear the "ouch" sound faintly in the background. The man who did the recording thinks it's an answering call from the capped queen.
I've looked up piping on the internet and it's believed (not proven yet but suspected) that it's a call to arms, a challenge between queens in a hive. The piping can be done by a hatched queen (mated or unmated) and also by unhatched queens that are still inside their queen cells.
And for some awesome queen photos and supersedure cell photos see this blog: http://mistressbeek.com/2009/04/18/high-drama-and-the-virgin-queen-piping/ She also heard the piping when opening one of her hives.
Wikepedia has information on piping which I've quoted here: "Piping describes a noise made by virgin and mated queen bees during certain times of the virgin queens' development. Fully developed virgin queens communicate through vibratory signals: "quacking" from virgin queens in their queen cells and "tooting" from queens free in the colony, collectively known as piping. A virgin queen may frequently pipe before she emerges from her cell and for a brief time afterwards. Mated queens may briefly pipe after being released in a hive. The piping sound is variously described as a children's trumpet tooting and quacking. It is quite loud and can be clearly heard outside the hive. The piping sound is created by the flight motor without movement of the wings. The vibration energy is resonated by the thorax.
Piping is most common when there is more than one queen in a hive. It is postulated that the piping is a form of battle cry announcing to competing queens and the workers their willingness to fight. It may also be a signal to the worker bees which queen is the most worthwhile to support. The piping sound is a G♯ or A♮. The adult queen pipes for a two-second pulse followed by a series of quarter-second toots.[2] The queens of Africanized bees produce more vigorous and frequent bouts of piping."
What do you think of all this? I welcome your comments on your experiences with your hives.It's all very interesting. So interesting in fact that I bought a stethoscope on e-bay for $25.00 so I can really listen. No, I'm not crazy. It's all in the name of research right?!
6 comments:
I haven't experienced this with my own hive, but I did hear about it on Nova's "Tales from the Hive". The DVD showed new queens hatching, and played the exact same sound as the youtube link.
In the DVD it was described as the new queens challenging each other - very "there can be only one!". ;) The first hatched queen stung the other cells, but a second queen hatched and they attempted to fight it out, all the time making the piping noises.
It was a good show to watch. Link here if you want more info on the program.
I'm glad you mentioned this because I have this video! It was so long ago that I watched it that I forgot. Thanks for reminding me!
Fascinating, Barbara! Thanks for the post and the link. I've heard of piping but never "heard" it until I saw the video. Its fascinating, yet eerie at the same time. If I'd heard it, but didn't know what it was, I would have freaked, lol. Sort of reminds me of the haunting voice of the fly in the Vincent Price movie, "The Fly" which drives me nuts! Great post!
Very interesting... thanks for posting this. Have not heard it from my hives, but now feel I can recognize it. I'm a second-year bee-learner myself, and took nearly 50# of honey off a couple weeks ago. I've enjoyed reading about your beekeeping adventures!
Two weeks ago my hive swarmed. Yesterday I heard the very same sound coming from my hive so I video taped it. Sure enough you can hear 2 virgin queens piping! My bees 3 days in a row have gone through the act of swarming, flying in the air, landing on plants and flowers, hanging on the hive only to return back inside. Perhaps neither queen wants to leave!?!
Hi Suzanne. Thanks for your comments. Once I had a hive swarm out while I was in the yard and thank God they returned to the hive - so it was a false swarm. You should probably divide the hive and have a new queen in each hive (if there's unhatched queen cells you can make sure there is a cell in each hive). Otherwise they will most likely swarm for real and then you could lose the bees.
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