Honeybees: 2

The merciless war between the honeybee and bumblebee kingdoms has claimed yet another life.  As I inspected the honeybee hive last evening, I noticed a recently dumped bumblebee carcass below the hive entrance.  No doubt the bumblebee had forced its way into the hive only to find itself engulfed by masses of defending honeybees.  I've never witnessed honeybees when they've battled an invading insect, but I've read that when they can't sting the intruder they will engage in what is known as "balling."  The term "balling," in this context, has nothing to do with any of the slang and often vulgar definitions described in urbandictionary.com.  Rather, in the case of honeybees, "balling" describes an attack in which a group of honeybees forms a tight cluster or "ball" around an intruder and, by collectively vibrating their wing muscles, generate enough body heat to literally cook the intruder to death.

The bee balling phenomena is well documented in science and there are many detailed descriptions of it on the Internet.  One BBC news report I found includes a thermal image of balling, which does a good job of showing the incredible heat being generated. 

Collective behavior in nature has always intrigued me and honeybees exhibit a lot of it.  One such collective behavior, which I particularly enjoy watching, is called "fanning."  If the hive has gotten too warm from the summer heat, or the bees are evaporating nectar to make honey, or they detect smoke from my smoker, a number of them will stand on the wax comb with their rears stretched high into the air and rapidly beat their wings to create an airflow over that portion of the hive.  When enough bees start fanning in the top bar hive (usually when the have is getting too warm), it can actually produce a weak flow of warm air that I can feel blowing against my hand if I place it up to one of the entrance holes.  All of this collective fanning produces a soft, distinctively pitched "hum" sound, which, reminds me (very vaguely) of the harmonics produced by Tuvan throat singing (if very small people were doing it).  For those of you who have never heard of Tuvan throat singing here is one example, though, the more I listen to this example, the less it seems like the bees.  Nonetheless it's an interesting video.

Anyway, returning to bee balling. Bees are very fastidious creatures, so, after the intruder has been killed several bees, known as "undertaker bees," will work for as long as it takes to drag the dead intruder across the hive floor and dump it outside the nearest entrance hole.