Why Living in a Society and Helping Each Other Matters

Living in a society means being part of a group that works together to help everyone. Many animals, including humans, live in societies. You might know some other examples, like elephants, wolves, meerkats, penguins, flamingos, ants, and honeybees.

There are several important reasons why living in a group is so helpful. First, in a society, everyone has a different role. Sharing jobs helps things run smoothly. For example, some animals protect the group, while others search for food or take care of the young. By working together, the group becomes stronger and more successful. Second, living in groups helps animals protect each other. Some members act as lookouts to warn about dangers, like predators. Societies help animals stay safe.

Honeybees Use Teamwork to Find Food

The third reason that living in a group is helpful is that working as a group makes it easier to build homes and find food. When a honeybee finds flowers full of nectar and pollen, it flies back to the colony (Figure 1). There, it shares the food with others through a behavior called trophallaxis, which helps them evaluate the food’s quality. Then, the bee performs a special waggle dance, which tells the other bees where to find the flowers, how far away they are, and how good the flowers are. This teamwork helps the entire colony survive.

Did you know that before honeybees even leave the colony, a lot must happen inside to prepare them? Searching for flowers depends on a combination of the colony’s needs, the right motivation, and favorable conditions in the outside environment.

How Hunger Works in Humans

Do you know why you feel hungry right before mealtime, after playing a lot, or when you have been busy for hours doing something fun? It is because two important parts of your body—your brain and your stomach—are always working together! When your stomach is empty, it makes a funny noise called a growl (you have probably heard it before!; Figure 2). At the same time, your stomach sends a message to your brain saying, “Hey, I am empty, it would be good to find something to eat”! That is why you start looking for food. When you eat enough food, your stomach sends a new message to your brain saying, “I am full now, thanks”! This tells your body it does not need any more food for the moment. In humans, hunger tells us what we need as individuals. On the other hand, in societies of honeybees, this process of feeling hungry and finding food is a little bit different …

How Hunger Works in Honeybees

Honeybees differ from humans when it comes to feeling hungry and finding food. They live in large groups, and their behavior depends on what is happening around them—especially when it comes to food. For example, young honeybees (called larvae) produce pheromones—chemicals that have specific odors that humans cannot detect. These pheromones signal “we are hungry” and the need for care. The odors spread throughout the colony, making the other bees more active and ready to help. Adult honeybees detect the pheromones through their antennae—yes, they smell with their antennae (Figure 2)!

Some honeybees then leave the colony to search for flowers where they can collect nectar and pollen. They bring these substances back to the hive, where the food is given to the bees caring for the young, and any extra is stored as honey. After they get food, the young bees stop releasing the hunger pheromones, which in effect says, “we are full now”! In humans, feeling hungry and searching for food happens at the level of the individual. In honeybees, it is a social process: hungry larvae release pheromones, adult bees smell these odors, become motivated, and leave the hive to find food.

On top of that, when bees detect hunger pheromones, their bodies produce chemical messengers that change their behavior, increasing their motivation to leave the colony and forage.

How Do Tiny Chemical Messengers Make Bees Search for Food?

Researchers think that when adult honeybees sense the pheromones released by young bees, their bodies make tiny chemical messengers called neuropeptides (Figure 3) [1]. Neuropeptides help the bees’ brains send instructions to their bodies, such as “time to move and find food”! In short, pheromone odors can cause a bee’s body to release neuropeptides, which help change how adult bees behave.

Neuropeptides control hunger, but they also tell animals when to relax, when danger is near, and when it is sleeping time. Neuropeptides basically make sure everything runs smoothly by sending the right messages when needed. Neuropeptides are incredibly important—not just for honeybees, but for all animals! One of these messengers in honeybees is called short neuropeptide F (sNPF). Humans have a similar messenger, but ours is called neuropeptide Y instead of F.

Effects of Neuropeptides and Dopamine on Bee Behavior

Researchers have discovered that when honeybees are fed and then given a small dose of sNPF, their behavior changes [2]. Normally, bees with full stomachs do not perform certain food-related actions, but this neuropeptide makes them more motivated to perform behaviors like drinking nectar, which they usually show when visiting flowers.

Another important chemical messenger is dopamine, which influences mood and motivation in both humans and bees. When you do something rewarding—like scoring a goal or finishing a project—your brain releases dopamine, making you feel good and motivated. In bees, dopamine acts similarly to sNPF—its levels can shift in response to external cues, but its effects shape a bee’s behavior at the individual level. Honeybees’ dopamine levels increase when they leave the hive, find flowers, and return with food, which makes them feel good and boosts their drive to forage more [3].

These two chemicals, sNPF and dopamine, work together. The right balance of sNPF, dopamine, and hunger keeps bees motivated to complete tasks and remember important information.

Do Bees Search for Food All Year Round?

In tropical areas, honeybees search for food almost all year round. But in places with cold winters, honeybees are usually active only during spring and summer [4]. Why is that? Honeybees rely on weather to help them find food and to feel motivated to leave their colony. In spring and summer, flowers are abundant, so bees go out to collect nectar and pollen to meet their immediate needs and to store food for times when flowers are scarce, like in fall and winter.

However, it is not just flowers that matter. The amount of sunlight and warm temperatures also influence when bees leave their hive. When the light and heat are intense enough, honeybees are more likely to go out and search for food. So, the best time for honeybees to forage for food is when there are many flowers, plenty of sunlight, and it is warm outside—usually in spring and summer.

Why Does it Matter to Humans That Honeybees Are Good Food Finders?

Honeybees contribute a lot to nature. While searching for food, they perform pollination—the process that helps plants produce seeds, which turn into new plants. Pollination happens when pollen moves from one flower to another of the same kind. Wind can do this too, but honeybees are experts at it!

Did you know that about 75% of the fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds we eat exist because of pollination? Even though honeybees collect food to feed their young and store it for colder months, their work goes beyond feeding their own colony—it helps our entire planet.

How does all this information connect? Young honeybees release pheromones when they need food, triggering chemical messengers in the bodies of adult bees. These messengers motivate adults to leave the colony and search for food. However, the conditions outside—like the right amount of light, warmth, and blooming flowers—must also be just right for them to succeed.

Next time you see a honeybee buzzing around a flower, remember they are not just finding food for themselves—they are responding to their colony’s needs. Their pollination services support many types of plants, animals, and people all around the world!

Glossary

Colony: ↑ A big bee family that lives and works together in the same home called a hive.

Trophallaxis: ↑ It is when insects like bees share food with each other mouth-to-mouth.

Waggle Dance: ↑ Special bee movements that tell other bees where to find yummy flowers with food.

Pheromones: ↑ Special smells produced by animals, including honeybees, to send messages to others of the same species.

Neuropeptides: ↑ Tiny chemical messengers in the body that help the brain and other parts of the body communicate.

short Neuropeptide F: ↑ A chemical that affects motivation to perform food-gathering and eating behaviors in insects.

Dopamine: ↑ A chemical in the brain that affects mood, motivation, and feelings of reward.

Pollination: ↑ The process of moving pollen from one flower to another, which helps plants produce seeds and grow new plants.

Conflict of Interest

The author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the agencies that gave us the necessary resources to allow the study to be performed. RS thanks the Fyssen Foundation, FAPESP (24/00871-6) and SOUND [Avec le soutien de l’Alliance Sorbonne Université dans le cadre du projet “SOUND - pour un nouvel engagement” financé par l’ANR au titre de France 2030 (ANR-22-EXES-0004)] for financial support. MG and GS thank the laboratory Neurosciences Paris-Seine and Sorbonne University for generous support. MG also thanks the support of the Institute Universitaire de France and of the Institute of Biology Paris-Seine.

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