[HN Gopher] Conditioning honeybees to a mimic odor increases for...
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       Conditioning honeybees to a mimic odor increases foraging activity
        
       Author : wslh
       Score  : 28 points
       Date   : 2023-12-02 02:57 UTC (20 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (link.springer.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (link.springer.com)
        
       | loa_in_ wrote:
       | Yeah, but is it good for the bees? It's not like they're slacking
       | off otherwise
        
         | rolph wrote:
         | providing a search image [mimic odor], or even a sample of the
         | real thing, dramaticly cuts the lead time on foraging.
         | 
         | scouting, pastures for impending bloom, and presenting that
         | item along with light sugar solution provides a search image.
         | more forage time and less nectar scouting, increases yield, and
         | allows some influence of final product constituency.
         | 
         | bees will slack off if you coddle them so they have no need to
         | forage.
        
       | fsckboy wrote:
       | the abstract (interesting, but the claims made are modest):
       | 
       |  _Almond is a high-market value crop that benefits from honeybee
       | pollination services, even for self-compatible varieties.
       | Besides, it has been recently shown that the offering of food
       | scented with floral mimic odors specific to different crops
       | biased honeybee foraging preferences towards sunflowers, pear, or
       | apple trees. Herein, we analyzed the floral volatiles of two
       | almond self-compatible varieties to propose potential mimic
       | odors. The mixture which bees discriminated the least from the
       | natural floral scent in olfactory conditioning assays was chosen
       | as almond mimic (AM). In the field, colonies fed AM-scented
       | sucrose solution increased their foraging activity and amounts of
       | stored pollen compared with colonies fed unscented food. Our
       | results support the conditioning of honeybees to a floral mimic
       | odor as a potential tool to bias their foraging preferences in
       | almond, even applicable to self-compatible varieties. Future
       | studies should address its effect on yield._
       | 
       | sci-hub does not have the document, but maybe I'm not doing it
       | right
       | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13592-023-01019-7
        
       | whalesalad wrote:
       | Honeybee overclocking?
        
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       (page generated 2023-12-02 23:01 UTC)