A new episode of the podcast is up! This week, I finish my book review of Honeybee Democracy by Thomas Seeley with Chapter 10 and the Epilogue. The final chapter looks to the honey bees in a swarm for guidance on how human groups can come to a fair and accurate decision, while the Epilogue summarizes the contents of the book neatly and succinctly. Listen on Podbean or wherever you get your podcasts!
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Homestead Updates
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll have seen that I recently had a scare involving my female whippet, Luna. She threw up a small amount around 4pm on Sunday evening; mostly water and a little kibble from breakfast. I didn’t think anything of it since sometimes she drinks too much all at once and this is the result. Well, an hour later, my husband called me in from the garden because he was concerned Luna was breathing oddly and wanted my opinion. Sure enough, my little noodle was breathing hard and making an audible rasping noise. Her gums were pale, ears cold, and she seemed very groggy and lethargic. I immediately threw on real clothes (I basically live in slogs when at home these days!), bundled her into the car, and made the 22 minute drive to the ER vet while Henry called ahead. Longest car ride of my life!! I was terrified she would go downhill, and my mind was filled with the terrible possibility of her dying on the way there. Somehow, I kept myself together and we got there in good time. The staff at my local ER vet are phenomenal; they triaged her in the car, and I felt like I could breathe again when they told me her vitals were good. There were more urgent cases that needed to be seen before us so I sat in the back with my little muffin while we waited. The staff came out and checked her vitals a second time to be sure she remained stable, which I greatly appreciated. After about 2 hours, she was taken in to see the vet, and by this time her breathing was better, her eyes were bright, and she seemed more comfortable and alert. Long story short, 2 x-rays (chest and abdomen) and a blood test later, and we learned she had aspiration pneumonia. Poor little mite had inhaled some of her vomit and infection was already setting in. We were sent home with some strong antibiotics and a recommendation to offer her a generic antacid (we went with Prilosec) as well as a bland diet for several days. I’m happy to report that she is recovering exceptionally well! She ate and took her meds that first night and has been a little champ since. She’s mostly 100% as I record this, though still sometimes coughs if she runs or barks. We're trying to keep her as quiet as possible so she can heal. Lots of snuggles are needed and we are only too happy to oblige!
Squeak, my cut-beak rescue hen who lives with old lady Agatha in the special needs coop, started to look unwell not long after my last episode aired. She wasn’t showing much interest in food and she was largely inactive, all fluffed up and sleepy looking. Since I have antibiotics and painkillers on hand for the chickens, I decided to try treating her at home first to see how she would do. My concern was paying another expensive vet bill only to have him recommend the treatment plan I was considering myself. I’m delighted to say that within 48hrs, she seemed much brighter, and she is now back to normal! During her treatment period, she was getting antibiotics twice daily and a painkiller in the morning. I was also trying to encourage her to eat with things like raw egg, scrambled egg, Nutridrench, a little yoghurt, and fresh cut greens. It took a little while but she finally started to eat and that definitely helped speed up her recovery.
Speaking of the chickens, they have started roaming off the property and getting into my neighbour’s flower beds. This is unacceptable. My neighbour is a good sport and very understanding but she works hard on her garden and I don’t want my flock of tiny dinosaurs messing it up. I originally tried putting out stakes with bird scare tape on it but they didn’t care so I have had to fence them in somewhat. I put up a bird net fence to keep them away from the front of the property. They could theoretically navigate around it by going through the trees at the side of the lawn but I’m hoping they don’t figure that out. I’ve piled some branches up along there to help deter them as well. Honestly, this helps me out too because they have become fixated on my own flower beds and make such a mess, kicking the mulch all over the front path! Now the little turds can work on the lawn and wooded area but not the managed beds. Hurrah!
In other poultry news, we recently reunited a turkey hen with her farm after she’d been on the loose for a week. My husband heard an unusual bird call Sunday morning and went out to investigate. He found a turkey hen on the side of our property, happily scratching around in the leaves. He initially woke me up to see if I was interested in viewing her but I wanted more sleep! Then he returned and said he thought we might have a ‘duckling situation’, and that woke me right up! By this, he means that he thought this was a pet someone had dumped. For one, she is solid black, which is not wild turkey colouring, and she also has a red band on her leg. A quick Google search and we learned she was likely a Norfolk Black Turkey, which is a heritage breed and quite rare. No way someone would randomly dump such a bird! So we decided to catch her, which was easier than expected, and we put her in the chicken run (keeping the chickens separate to avoid potential virus transmission). Agatha could see her from the special needs coop and was FURIOUS. She yelled the whole time the turkey was here, which was hilarious! Anyway, I went on to my Facebook chicken, homestead, and lost pet groups, and put up a ‘found’ message. Much to my amazement, the turkey’s owner contacted me within just 45 minutes! After an hour of her capture, she was being collected. Turns out, her people live on a farm that backs up to the end of our road. The turkey, Sam, had suffered a minor injury and had been kept in the house to recover. When she seemed well enough, she was put into a fenced pasture for some outside time, and she decided to take off, flying over the fence and off into the woods! They looked for her to no avail, and eventually felt she had likely died. They were very grateful that we found and caught her. Quite the Sunday morning for me!
Speaking of random poultry or fowl. . . the day after this episode airs, I’ll be collecting a guineafowl hen from a friend of mine! She lives about an hour from me and is also a chicken mama. A guinea hen just showed up one day and adopted her flock. Unable to find the owner, and driven mad by its noise, she asked if I’d be interested in her. Of course, I said yes! I figure I’ll see how she adapts to life here and, if for some reason it doesn’t work out, I’ll reach out to my local homesteaders to find her a good home. Fingers crossed all goes well!
Our beautiful warm weather abandoned us and we had a cold snap, including snow! No, thank you! I wasn’t too worried about the plants but I did have some concerns about the bees. Speaking of. . ..
Hive Updates
When I saw the snow forecast, I didn’t think it would stick around but I woke up to a world blanketed in the white stuff so I went out to re-wrap my colony and also added a small quilt box. The snow was already getting a little mushy but we had flurries throughout the day and into the following morning so I am glad I gave them the extra insulation.
These girls fly at much lower temperatures than I am used to seeing with bees. When I put the quilt box on, I didn’t think I’d see any of them up on the feeder (assuming they’d be tightly clustered around the brood) but there were quite a few eating away, and some even flew up to see what I was doing! I wasn’t wearing a veil so I tried to stay calm and still while they investigated me and then quickly finished up.
Right before the warm weather fled, I did a hive inspection. Things are looking good! There’s been a noticeable increase in drone brood so I kept an eye out for signs of swarming such as no eggs (the queen stops laying after she is slimmed down in preparation to fly), swarm cells, etc. Thankfully, my queen is still laying eggs so they hadn’t made a decision to swarm yet. I decided that I’d make at least one nucleus colony once the weather warms up again, in order to give them some more space. I did not move frames around to expand the brood area due to the cold we had coming on and the cooler nights that would persist for a while.
The weather finally warmed up again on the 27th so I went out to do another inspection and a mite test. I am delighted to announce that I found zero mites (using the alcohol wash method)! I also culled some drone comb and examined those for mites; nothing. So the oxalic acid treatments appear to have done the trick. I’ll continue to test for mites each month to make sure I don’t miss anything.
I also tried my hand at marking my queen and made a right bloody mess of it. I’m so annoyed at myself! When I practiced on a drone, it went perfectly. When I tried to mark the queen, I managed to get paint all over her wings. Urgh! Her attendants started trying to clean it all off so I don’t know if the mark on her abdomen will stay. I hated seeing her so upset! Definitely need to practice on more drones before I try that again.
I went ahead and pulled 5 frames (2 honey, 1 pollen, 2 brood/eggs) to make a nucleus colony (frame layout: honey, pollen, brood, honey). This made some room in the brood nest of my primary colony but I might still have to split them. They currently have 2 nearly full deep boxes, 1 half-full med super, and I just put on an extra med for them to build comb on.
In preparation for the better weather, I have been painting an additional nuc box and the roof of my topbar hive. I went with a forest green colour (as opposed to my usual white) and I really like how it looks! This topbar hive is HUGE and I can’t wait to start working with it and letting you all know how we get on!
As of the 26th, I received news that my package of Carniolan bees is winging its way to me so watch this space!
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Chapter 10: Swarm Smarts
. . . for so work the honey-bees,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
-William Shakespeare, Henry V, 1599.
What can we learn from the decision making process of honeybee swarms? Seeley feels the bees have much to teach us, and has applied their methods to his real, day to day life. In 2005, he became Department head of Neurobiology and Behaviour at Cornell, and introduced ways for the faculty to make decisions based on the ‘swarm smarts’ of honeybees. He likes to think that the faculty’s apparent satisfaction with their decisions indicates this was a success.
Seeley also compares honeybee swarm decisions to that of New England town meetings. He chose this specific example as they are a form of small town government that has existed for more than three hundred years, and uses a similar collective decision making process.
“Once a year - the citizens in a town come together in an open, face-to-face assembly and render binding collective decisions (laws) that govern the actions of everyone in the town.” Pg.219
He breaks this chapter up into 5 lessons based on the swarm’s decision making process.
Lesson 1: Compose the Decision-Making Group of Individuals with Shared Interests and Mutual Respect
Working together productively requires, at the bare minimum, a certain alignment of interests so that all involved are amenable to working together as a cohesive unit. Similarly, a certain amount of mutual respect avoids infighting, bruised egos, pride, and dismissals from interrupting the process.
With a honeybee swarm, we see how all the bees have a common goal: finding a new nest site, and to do this successfully means their continued survival. Indeed, biologists now know that no individual worker bee can be said to succeed without the survival and reproduction of the colony. The genetic success of each worker bee can only be achieved if the colony as a whole survives.
We know that worker bees themselves do not reproduce. Instead, they rely on the queen, who is both the colony’s reproductive heart, as well as a the propagator of reproductive units in the form of drones (sperm) and daughter-queens (ova).
“Because the workers have a common need for their colony to thrive, and because a thriving colony passes the workers’ genes into the future with near perfect impartiality, it is not surprising that the workers of a honeybee colony cooperate strongly to serve the common good.” Pg.220.
With humans, it’s less clear cut. A group of us rarely, if ever, share such a true singularity of purpose; rarely do we rely intrinsically on each other to survive.
Instead, it helps to remind any decision making group that they have gathered as all share some stake in the welfare of said group. Just as Seeley would remind members of his department that the goal is to make decisions that will strengthen the department, which is ultimately to the benefit of them all.
At a New England town meeting, this reminder of shared purpose, comes from the moderator, who helps focus and navigate the group through the decision making process.
It helps, of course, to form a group of generally reasonable individuals, who are respectful of others' opinions, and share a willingness to listen. Sadly, it’s often difficult to create such a cohesive group but that does not mean all is lost. There are formats and procedures that foster cohesion and forward momentum within any decision making group.
For example, having all comments passed to the moderator can prevent arguments and bickering. It also allows all opinions to be collected by a neutral party whose goal is to move the meeting forward productively.
Similarly, as department head, Seeley notes how he has had to politely end demoralizing stalemates or interject between two colleagues engaged in a heated exchange.
“Such things reawaken my appreciation of the marvelous absence of corrosive relations among the debating bees.” Pg.221
Lesson 2: Minimize the Leader’s Influence on the Group’s Thinking
A honeybee swarm is perfectly democratic with ‘power’ spread evenly amongst all of the scout bees; there is no single leader that makes the final decision, or steers the debate in one direction.
In direct comparison, many human groups do function with a single leader. So how might a leader behave in order to foster the most democratic process? Whenever possible, they should remain impartial, limiting their direct involvement in the decision making process. For instance, the individual should avoid stating what outcome they wish to occur, and should instead foster open debate among all view points, abstaining from prioritizing one over another. They should remain open to criticism of their role and others in order for the debate to be truly free and open.
If a group leader indicates their desired outcome, they have influenced the debate before it has even begun, either through those wishing to please said leader by supporting their viewpoint, or those set on opposing them.
Seeley offers the example of President George W. Bush and his decision to invade Iraq in 2003. Those who worked with President Bush described his leadership as ‘headstrong’, and so when he told his foreign policy advisers of his deeply held belief that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and needed to be removed, his advisers fell in line with his thinking. They did not question his thinking, debate options, or consider the full ramifications of going to war. By all accounts, they squandered the opportunity to use group intelligence, and instead made a decision based on one man’s gut instinct.
Let’s compare this to how a moderator of a New England town meeting behaves; their goal is not to steer the discussion their way but instead to make sure that every registered voter is allowed to speak, that any debate is conducted fairly, and that decisions are made in a timely manner.
Lesson 3: Seek Diverse Solutions to the Problem
Sometimes, an issue has a simple solution. Seeley likens this to opening a door; we either push or pull to open it. Other issues are far more complex and it is here that a diverse range of views is far superior than one ‘despotic individual’ calling the shots.
Scout bees show us the benefit of a large and diverse group of individuals exploring on their own. Each scout bee explores alone, searching far and wide for potential nest sites. She will examine and judge any site found, and then announce her discovery at the swarm cluster should she have found it suitable. In this way, a myriad of possible new nest sites are brought to the cluster for consideration, expanding their chances of finding a high quality site in which to establish themselves.
To achieve something similar in our own groups, Seeley suggests the following 4 criteria:
Ensure the group is sufficiently sized (not too small or too large)
Ensure the group is diverse
Foster independent exploratory thought and work
Create an environment in which the group members feel comfortable to propose ideas and solutions.
Sometimes, not all of these elements can be implemented. For instance, Seeley could not change the size and composition of his faculty meetings but he could encourage creative thinking, and foster an encouraging environment so that all feel comfortable to express their ideas.
Similarly, encouraging brainstorming, where suggestions are taken from the group to tackle a problem, fosters open debate and results in numerous possible actions for consideration. Seeley would also specifically call on members who had not yet spoken to ensure that all had an opportunity to speak (ruling out reticence or shyness from preventing a good option being made available to the group).
New England town meetings rely on ‘Robert’s Rules of Order’, written by Henry M. Robert (an engineer in the US army), published in 1876, as a guide for their meetings. One noteworthy rule is that each participant in a meeting may express their opinion on an issue but no individual may speak twice on said issue until all have had the opportunity to speak. This prevents any one person from dominating the discussion, and allows a greater degree of fairness within the debate.
The ultimate goal is to tap the full collective knowledge of the group.
Lesson 4: Aggregate the Group’s Knowledge Through Debate
How does a group most effectively take the collective knowledge and opinions of its members to make a single decision? Humanity has created a number of methods to do so: majority rule, plurality wins (aka ‘winner takes all’), weighted-voting; just to name a few.
This problem of social choice is not unique to humans; many other species face the same challenge, namely how to come to a decision when there is strong disagreement amongst a group’s members.
Perhaps honeybees have provided an answer for us, one honed over millions of years of natural selection.
A honeybee swarm’s scout bees compete to recruit support from a pool of scout bees not yet committed to a nest site location. Whichever group of scouts first reaches a quorum of supporters ‘wins’. This group then goes on to build consensus so that all scouts are in agreement before the swarm takes flight towards its new home.
What’s so impressive about this whole process is that it almost always results in the swarm selecting the very best site of the options provided.
Seeley also finds noteworthy how the process balances interdependence and independence among the scout bees.
The scouts function independently in their search for potential nest sites and in their communication of discovery to the swarm. This reporting is crucial as it brings nest site possibilities to the debate.
We know that a scout bee reports a site’s location and quality via her waggle dance. This allows other non-committed scouts to find the site, examine it themselves, and then report (via dance) their findings. A high quality site will be danced for with great enthusiasm and strength, quickly leading to a positive feedback loop of recruitment and dancing that leads to its prominence amongst the options.
Since the scouts recruit from a finite pool of additional scout bees, eventually the majority of these recruited bees will be drawn to a strong site until a quorum is reached. In this way, the best site prevails, even if it is discovered late in the process of site reporting.
The interdependence is seen in this process of recruitment but one key aspect of independence has a profound effect on the debate: whether a scout bee chooses to report a site.
Scout bees do not blindly follow another based on an enthusiastic waggle dance; she will inspect a site herself and come to a decision on its quality. If it is lacking, she will not dance for it (or will do so weakly). This allows for errors in reporting to be rectified.
Failing to check the veracity of ‘communal wisdom’ can lead to catastrophic decisions, such as what occurred with the stock market in the late 1990s. Investors sunk billions of dollars into companies that lacked value purely based on what other investors were buying, They created an uncontested positive feedback loop that led to disaster because no one looked into the companies and assessed their quality.
Seeley suggests three factors to assist in utilizing the wisdom of the bees in this area:
Foster frank debate, integrating information dispersed among the group members
Foster good communication within the group
Recognize the need to listen critically, to form one’s own opinion, and register views independently
This can be seen at town meetings: “In both bee swarms and town meetings, the heart of the decision-making process is an open competition of ideas that are publicly shared but privately evaluated.” Pg.229
One practical application that might be of merit is the use of secret ballot after open and free debate. This ensures that peer pressure or fear of reprisal does not influence those voting, and Seeley has found it to work well when he was department head.
Lesson 5: Use Quorum Responses for Cohesion, Accuracy, and Speed
It might initially seem wise to allow a democratic group to debate until one single action is selected by all members to ensure ultimate fairness but this is often impossible and time-consuming. Perhaps there is no single solution that works for everyone. Perhaps there is not enough time available to come to full agreement due to an emergency or some other time-limiting factor. So what can be done?
“Usually there are costs associated with the decision process, and the accumulatory costs of further debate can eventually outweigh the benefits.” Pg.230
Honeybees appear to have found a rather tidy solution to this problem; using quorum sensing to reach a decision. Specifically, for their behaviour to change rapidly once a threshold number (quorum) has been reached.
We know that a swarm must stay together to survive and so consensus must be reached before the swarm can fly as a cohesive unit to its new home. We also know that the bees invest heavily in the house-hunting process (as many as several days), and publicly debate all nest sites reported. Once the number of scouts at one of the sites reaches a threshold (quorum), these scouts will abruptly return to the swarm cluster and begin preparing their sisters for flight via worker piping.
This piping signals to the clustered bees to begin warming their flight muscles, and likely informs any scouts still advertising for the losing sites that they should return to the swarm and cease their reporting. In this way, we can see that the quorum of scouts triggers key behaviour changes, which together act as a mechanism to accelerate a consensus being reached.
This quorum response allows thousands of bees to ready themselves for flight before a consensus has been reached, thereby shortening the period of time in which the swarm is clustered out in the open, vulnerable to predation and weather.
Quorum response used in our own groups can equally allow a decision to be reached in good time and with a high degree of accuracy. Seeley offers an example: if his faculty meetings are faced with a major decision that requires a unanimous vote, he has used straw polls (by secret ballot) to assess how close the group is to consensus. If they are far from unanimity then further considered debate is required. If, however, they are close to an agreement, usually the minority voters will realise that further debate is unwarranted and will yield their position. Thus, this method of straw polls offers a quorum response that accelerates reaching a consensus.
“Of course, in a human group, as in a bee swarm, individuals should operate with a high threshold when marking a quorum response to avoid sacrificing the accuracy of a group’s decision making.” Pg. 231
Epilogue
This section acts as a succinct summary of the book.
Some 60 years ago, Martin Lindauer happened upon a swarm cluster of honeybees, and noticed ‘dirty dancers’; bees covered in soot, red brick dust, and grey soil, all of them enthusiastically dancing upon the surface of the cluster. He wondered if these bees were so dusty because they had left the cluster in search of new nesting sites? This chance observation, and the question that arose from it, led to Lindauer embarking upon his study of how honeybee swarms found their new home, a time which he referred to as “the most beautiful experience of his life”. Pg.233
This book has examined the work done by Lindauer and other biologists on the process of house hunting and decision making of a honeybee swarm.
We have learned how a few hundred experienced foragers go from looking for food to looking for a new home; that they share their discovery via waggle dance, and how this leads to an extended debate about which site is best, before finally an agreement is reached.
“Almost always, the collective wisdom of the scout bees chooses the best available option, so that the swarm occupies a nest cavity that provides good protection and sufficient space to hold the large honey stores that the colony will consume in keeping itself warm throughout winter.” Pg.233
From this democratic decision-making process, we can identify 3 key factors:
Identifying a diverse set of options
Freely sharing information about these options
Aggregating this information in order to choose the best option
The bees do all of this without a leader to guide them, deftly allowing them to side step the pitfall of a dominating leader who pushes for a specific outcome, and thus prevents the group from considering and examining a wide range of options.
Although a leader can offer guidance in situations where the debate needs to be pulled back on track, or when tempers are high, honeybees avoid this need due to a collective purpose; all are equally invested in successfully finding and navigating to a new nest site. For people, perhaps this means that debate can more readily be kept on track when all participants share a common goal.
“The house-hunting bees remind us that the leader in a democratic group serves mainly to shape the process, not the product, of the group’s deliberations.” Pg.234
Scout bees are able to bring a broad range of options to the debate through their manner of searching far and wide and individually for nest sites; no two bees will search the exact same area. One scout might be drawn to seek out small knotholes some 30ft high upon a tree, while another is drawn to the cracks and crevices of buildings. The results of a few hundred scouts dispersing widely to examine many different potential nest sites results in a diverse range of options found within a limited time period, with as many as a dozen sites discovered in a single afternoon.
Having found these sites means little, however, if they are not advertised or brought to the table to be considered, and so we can see the critical importance of how a scout bee is compelled to return to the swarm cluster and advertise her found location. Her dance both transmits directions to her site as well as her assessment of its quality. This makes it possible for further scouts to be recruited by visiting the site advertised and judging it for themselves. In this way, all options are brought before the swarm for consideration with the higher quality sites gradually building support over time.
It’s important to note that all scouts are free to advocate for a site, even if it is of poor quality (as we have seen can happen).
“In a sense, then, on a honeybee swarm, all views are welcomed and respected; all opinions may be voiced.” Pg. 235
Once the options have been announced, the debate begins! We have seen how this process is much like a political election with multiple candidates (nest sites), competing advertisements (waggle dances), individuals committed to one or another candidate (scouts supporting a site), and a pool of neutral voters (scouts not yet supporting a site).
Crucially, supporters of a site can lose interest and return to the neutral voter pool, free to be recruited once more in the future.
Because the site of highest quality (or most suitability) will elicit the strongest dances, thus recruiting more scouts to dance for it, eventually it will dominate the debate.
What we have learned about the bees quorum sensing and consensus building is key, not just because of the benefit it provides in terms of time and accuracy, but also for what it does not do: there is no social pressure to conform, nor suppression of dissenting views. Each scout bee makes her own decision based on her personal examination of a site.
Seeley’s final paragraph of this book is so perfectly succinct that I am going to quote it in its entirety: “For millions of years, the scout bees on honeybee swarms have had the task of selecting proper homes for their colonies. Over this vast stretch of evolutionary time, natural selection has structured these insect search committees so that they make the best possible decisions. Now, at last, we humans have the pleasure of knowing how this ingenious selection process works, and the opportunity to use this knowledge to improve our own lives. Some have said that honeybees are messengers sent by the gods to show us how we ought to live: in sweetness and in beauty and in peacefulness. Whether or not this is true, I believe that the story of house hunting by honeybees can inspire the light of amazement about these beautiful little creatures, a light that I hope has shined through each page of this book.” Pg.236
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And that is ‘Honeybee Democracy’ by Thomas Seeley done! I’d like to thank the academy. . .
Thank you so much for going on this book review journey with me; I hope you enjoyed it and found the content as fascinating as I did. I confess that I am happy to have it done and behind me, and I look forward to moving onward to new material. I have yet to decide on content for my next episode but I suspect it will involve top bar hives, package installations, and guinea fowl!
I hope you’ll join me again in 2 weeks. In the meantime, feel free to reach out over on Instagram, Facebook, or email me at homesteadhensandhoney@gmail.com
I love to hear from you!
I hope all my listeners and readers are doing well and staying safe! I really appreciate all of you so much.
Luna reminds you to take some time and love on your pets, whenever you can! She is sending love your way. <3