Influence of keeping bees (Apis mellifera carnica Pollm.) in colonies or caged on the formation of conditioned reflex on the queen bee pheromones

Worker honeybees (Apis mellifera carnica Pollm.) were investigated. They were kept in a bee colony or in small cages in a thermostat from 0.5 to 3.0 h without food until the beginning of conditioning trials. Ethanol extract of mated bee queens (1'10-3 Qeq) was used as a conditioning stimulus and 50% sugar solution as reward. The ability of a bee to respond to queen extract (from 1'10-12 to 1'10-3 Qeq) calibrated according to (E)-9-oxo-2-decenoic acid was investigated. The results revealed that conditions, under which worker honeybees were kept prior to conditioning, influenced the formation of the reflexes to the pheromones of the bee queen. They affected not only the ability to form this reflex, but the course of its formation as well: a) the conditioned reflex to queen extract can be successfully formed in 93.2% of worker honeybees kept without food for 0.5 h after they have been taken away from a colony (the stimulus and reward have to be delivered on average 2.9±0.44 times, bees responded on average to 5.7±0.11 queen extract doses). b) the formation of the olfactory reflex to queen extract in worker honeybees taken from the colony and kept in a thermostat depends on the length of their existence without food: if they were kept without food for 0.5 h, the conditioned reflex was trained only in 10.0% of the individuals; if they were kept without food for an hour, the percentage of the individuals in which conditioned reflex occurred reached 59.1% (the stimulus and reward have to be delivered on average 4.1±0.07 times, bees responded on average to 4.3±0.01 queen extract doses), if 2.0 h - the number of individuals in which we managed to form the conditioned reflex grew up to 82.8% (the stimulus and reward should be offered on average 2.3±0.50 times, bees responded on average to 5.3±0.20 queen extract doses). If the bees were kept without food for 3.0 h, the conditioned reflex was trained in 0.0 % of them, because they were very weak or dead