Honeybee swarms generate more electricity per metre than a storm cloud

Corryn Wetzel is a writer.

honeybees have a higher electric charge for their density than a storm cloud.

The discovery came as a surprise when Hunting and his team were at a field station near their university. The electric field monitors recorded a jump in electric charge even though there was no storm activity. When honeybees are looking for a new home, they swarm at the same time.

Hunting was surprised to see that the data had a big impact. It was already known that individual bees carry a small charge, but a large one had never been documented in swarms of honeybees.

The team waited for the bees to swarm naturally by using additional electric field monitors and video cameras to measure the electric field and swarm density. Three swarms passed the monitors for 3 minutes at a time. The electric charge ranged from 100 to 1000 volts per metres. The denser the swarm, the stronger the electric field was.

Hunting compared the bees' highest charge to previous data on meteorological events, and found that dense bees swarms out charged them all. Their charge density was eight times as high as a storm cloud and six times as high as a dust storm.

It is not known if this ability is useful for bees or if it is an accident. The charge could be useful as bees use electric fields to find food.

Jiménez wants to know if the same thing is happening with other flying animals. The paper opens to investigate these questions.

There is a journal reference called iScience.