3. The behavior of real honeybees in their natural
environment
Honeybees live in social units called colonies, depending on the
time of year a typical colony includes a single queen, thousands
of semi-sterile female workers and a few thousand males (drones).
Adult workers are responsible for executing all the tasks associated
with colony living such as; processing and storing food, cleaning
cells, feeding larvae (nursing behavior), secreting wax and constructing
combs, and guarding the entrance [36].When the female
bees are about 3 weeks old, they begin foraging, cease performing
most tasks within the hive and usually remain foragers for the
rest of their lives [37]. Foragers are able to utilize a large number
of flower nectar (food sources) in multiple directions up to 12km
from the hive, but mostly they fly within a 3km radius [30].
In a colony, the female bees start the foraging process by randomly
searching for the promising flower patches. After finding
a food source, the bee loads up with nectar then returns to the
hive and unloads her nectar. Then, she may inform her nest mates
about her findings through the movements known as the “waggle
dance.” This dance gives three pieces of information regarding
the flower patch; the direction in which it can be found, distance
from the hive and quality rating [20,28,31]. In a decentralized but
intelligent fashion, some of the bees decide to follow their nest
mates who have performed the waggle dance; others, to maximize
their nectar intake, search for the food source without following the
dancers. This means that each bee can follow one of three options