-Honey bees have evolved for million years to carry heavy loads. They can pollens3 almost half their body weight, and this tag only weighs about a tenth of its body weight, so it's very easy for them to carry that weight. It doesn't affect their behavior in any way.
But for me, seeing is believeing. The man at the other end of the experiment is Dr. Stephan Wolf.
-So, yeah, we have the bee. She can't go through, can she?
-No, she can't, you know.
-OK. She just tries. There! Is that good?
-Perfect.
-Oh, I just hate squeezing them like that.
-Hold the transplanter at the white bit.
-At the white bit?
-Yes.
-At the bottom. OK.
-Stick it on very lightly. And here we are.
-Then she goes. Go on! It's bit like running over brown sticks on the back, isn't it?
-Perhaps.
This technology has already revealed some secrets of the life of a bee. In particular one of the greatest mysteries about these creatures how were they first leave the hive. They manage to find their way out and their way back, visiting up to 2,000 flowers in a day without getting lost.
-She's at the landscape that she's never seen before. So she starts with very small loops at the beginning around the hive and then extends these loops ever further, in order to build up a memory of the landscape that she would be able to come back to the hive.