RETURNING home to their hives, honeybees simply put their heads down and fly on autopilot. So says a study that used miniature radar transponders to track the flight of individual bees for the first time.
After bees have loaded up with pollen and nectar, they have to find their way back to their hive. To discover how they do this, Joe Riley at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, UK, and his team trained bees to collect sugar solution at an artificial feeder 200 metres directly east of their hive.
At the feeder, the team captured 90 bees and moved them up…
