Like the people who worshiped Diana, the “queen of people’s hearts,” honeybees fall into confusion when their monarch dies.
When a queen dies or disappears, the worker bees in the hive realize it within half an hour, and “start doing a lot of things that are not productive.”
Bees also work better when they are floating above crops redolent of the queen’s “royal message” – the scent of her pheromones. They work harder when they smell her.
Working out what makes up the “queen bee mandibular gland pheromone,” the chemical glue of the hive, allowed scientists Mark Winston and Keith Slessor, of Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University to duplicate it.
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They have taken this synthetic pheromone from the laboratory to beekeepers in Canada, the United States and overseas.
They have licensed products that are sprayed on crops in bloom and into hives.
They received $25,000 and national recognition this week when they received a Manning award for their product. The awards are named for Ernest Manning, a former premier of Alberta.
Winston said when the substance is sprayed on flowering crops – mainly fruits – bees work harder collecting pollen. So far the results on canola and other prairie crops are not as good, he said.
When it is used on a queenless hive, it calms the bees and keeps them productive.
Winston said the increased aggression of the pollen gathering bees leads to higher crop production.
The award recognizes success in something “I never expected to do. I didn’t think I would ever actually produce a product.”
He and his partner began as traditional research scientists, expecting to produce journal articles rather than commercial products, but then discovered they could produce something that would help beekeepers.
