A few questions - unrelated

[Janemma]

Two questions.....neither related to the other.....

1.  Its raining this week - for several days.  What do bees do when it rains for several days on end - do they just focus on comb building etc?  I'm wondering what to expect when I open up the hives at the weekend...will they have been busy in the hive because they can't get out and about?

2.  I know bees often communicate by dancing, but how do they communicate that they need to requeen?  How would they tell each other?  Who decides and how do they communicate that to the rest of the colony?

3.  I just finished reading 'The Secret Life if Bees'  (Fabulous novel by the way) and while I found much of it to be accurate, I found one part near the end quite surprising.  August, a beekeeper of many years with hundreds of hives, finds one hive that is Queenless.  Instead of letting the hive requeen itself or requeening from one of her other hives, she orders a Queen from a supplier.  I'm just wondering why a bigtime beekeeper would do that.  Or was that a mistake in the novel? 

These are just questions that have been rattling around in this empty head of mine at night ;)  thanks :)

[Jerrymac]

I'll give it a try.

#3. He probably bought a queen because it takes several weeks before the NEW queen starts laying, from the time the bees start making the queen cell to getting fertilized.... AND... that late in the season means there my not be any drones.

#2 the hive is mostly ruled by pheromones. Pheromones from the brood keeps workers from laying eggs for instance. As the queen degenerates, gets old, goes down hill, the pheromones she puts out change and the bees start preparing to make a new one. Also an injured queen will be replaced. Sometime when things aren't right with the hive the queen will be blamed for it and replaced. This could even include the beekeeper going into the hive too many times.

#1 They hang out and have parties.
Probably do basic house cleaning or any job that needs to be done. 

[Ross]

1) eat stored honey.  I lost a bunch of honey last year when we had record June rains. 
2) they can all sense the loss of the queen pherome.  They all start fanning within a minute after you remove her.  I'm not sure much communication is needed here.
3) you loose about 40 days of brood production if the hive has to start from an egg to raise a queen.