HONEYBEES from different fathers try to keep their nest at different temperatures. But this competition helps stabilise the temperature of the colony.
Bees have to keep their nests close to 35 °C to ensure the eggs hatch and develop. If the nest is too warm, they use their wings to fan out hot air from the entrance. But Julia Jones’s team from the University of Sydney in New South Wales has found that bees with different fathers – a colony can have up to 30 breeding drones – start fanning at slightly different temperatures and that colonies with multiple fathers…
