Just got done watching a Flow-Hive video on The Flow Campus. The queen was running around n TOOTING. That’s got to be a first for me. It’s going to make a great Flow-Library example. She was tooting off/on thru-out the entire video. Has anyone on here heard a QUEEN Tooting ?! I took a poor screen save of her on the frame Cedar was holding. That was totally amazing n cool. A new first for this old beekeeper or maybe I’ve heard it but didn’t KNOW what I was hearing !
Let us know if you’ve heard this Toot, Toot, Toot.
Thankz bro ! I appreciate the correction … They were calling it Tooting in the Flow-vid. Now I’ll be able to search … Nothing came up the " Tooting " on here.
I must admit, I haven’t found it frequently in hives (very specific times when it occurs)… but when a shipment of queens turn up in cages next to each other in a package, the piping noise is hard to miss
The queens are talking to each other. Queens being the operative word. There are more in there. When they are still in the cells it sounds kind of alike a “quack quack” like a duck. When they are out of the cells it sounds more like “zoot zoot zoot”.
People have speculated since before Huber’s time and as far as I know it has not been proven definitively, even though a few have claimed it has. Some think it’s the vibration of the wing muscles while using the comb for a resonator. Others think it’s some kind of expulsion of air from the body using the spiracles to make the noise. I’ve watched it many times and there is evidence to point both ways. The queen seems to crouch down and grip the comb tightly and also seems to expand and then contract the body suddenly which is how they usually breath.
The first time we extracted our flow hive- there was some leakage of honey (likely due to loose wires on a few frames). When this occurred we distinctly heard the queen tooting- or piping- from deep within the brood box. It was a very distinctive sound. Her Majesty was not amused by the mid-afternoon honey shower it seems…
I heard it about a month back. Then I had two swarms leave the hive. All looks good in the hive now. It was an odd sound. I was really curios. Maybe it’s a call to gather some followers.
Hi Gerald, the queen from one of my swarm colonies pipes each time I do an inspection. She was piping when I colllected the swarm 6 week ago, then when I transferred, and weekly inspections. Colony calm & gentle, doesn’t sound like distress. Next time I inspect will try & record. Saw 5 waggle dances yesterday across 2 hives. I filmed 5 seconds, had rtouble with camera butttons through gloves, off when thought was on etc.
Thankz for sharing that note about your “tooter queen”… I’ve heard the sound, piping several times this last season but erased the event off to my “EARS” we’re playing tricks on me. Once I saw Flows hive session my brain flashed, I’ve heard that before in my brain. It wasn’t my ears screwing up ! Now like many firsts I have added that to my bag of growing experience to glean from in the future. Sorry I waited until I am 70 plus years old to return to bee keeping. But thankfully I have RETURNED. It’s never to late to get back on the Bee Bus raising the “GIRLs ”!
I would heartily agree Gerald. I think that’s one of the wonderful thing about something like Beekeeping & it is evident on this forum, where there are people of all ages & experience communicating, another wonderful side to Bees in this instance, of bringing people together.
I have tinnitus, too many loud bands, my own fault, but sometimes at night I’m sure there’s a bee just behind me, following me. This queen however is so loud, & sounds like she is practising meditation, like the ommmmm sound.
