Honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) guarding behaviour may not be a rare task

AbstractNewly emerged honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus; Hymenoptera: Apidae) of four strains were placed into observation hives and observed for guarding behaviour. Significant differences were found between strains for guarding propensity. The proportion of introduced bees observed guarding was significantly higher in all strains (41% of bees that were alive at the time of observations) than proportions reported in earlier studies. This discrepancy is likely due to methodological differences and also to the fact that in this study, living bees were counted when calculating proportions, whereas other studies have used the total number of introduced bees. Further studies on the proportion of honey bees performing guarding behaviour are warranted.