Wisdom of honey bees: colony foraging is governed by colony needs

Honey bees visit the flowers for two essential nutritional requirements, viz., pollen and nectar. Sometimes the foraging bees collect more nectar, whereas at other times they collect more pollen. What makes them take such decisions has been the interest of many honey bee scientists. The objective of this article was to find out about the drivers causing such changes in the foraging decisions of the honey bee colony. The published literature was examined to find an answer to this question. For this, published research on foraging behavior of honey bees was scanned on different search engines. From the published reports, it has become evident that for making a choice between these two food sources, a high level of colony wisdom is involved. Sometimes the colony engages in brisk pollen collection, whereas on other occasions it engages in brisk nectar collection. Given the scarcity of a particular food type in the colony, the latter takes immediate and wise decisions. The colony makes these changes in the foraging decision depending on the needs of the colony. For example, with the addition of the unsealed brood and honey stores in the colony, the latter increases pollen foraging and decreases nectar foraging activity. However, with the addition of the sealed brood, the colony does not significantly change foraging activity. Likewise, with the addition of pollen stores, the honey bee colony decreases pollen foraging and increases nectar foraging activity. However, these colony decisions are not long-lasting. After some 20 days, the colony resumes its normal behavioral plasticity of usual nectar and pollen foraging activity. This knowledge of honey bee wisdom regarding its foraging decisions will be highly useful in colony management for honey production and/or pollination of crops