Guard Bees
Verhalten der Bienen
At around the 18th to 21st day of life, in the transition from house bee to forager, workers take over guard duty.
At around the 18th to 21st day of life, in the transition from house bee to forager, workers take over guard duty. They stand in front of and just behind the entrance and feel every arriving bee with their antennae. What is checked is the hive scent. The scent of the Nasonov gland alone is not colony-specific; only mixed with the colony's own odor does it become an identification.
If defense is not enough, the guards release an alarm pheromone. It is a mixture of at least a dozen scent compounds, released mainly at the base of the stinger when a bee stings. This simultaneously marks the attacker. The stinger has barbs and stays lodged in the skin of vertebrates, tearing the entire sting apparatus out of the abdomen.
For the apiary it is important to know: in periods without a nectar flow, the guards become stricter and no longer let any foreign bee through. Conspicuously heavy traffic at a weak colony is therefore not a good sign but a suspicion of robbing. The entrance is always part of assessing colony strength.