
Researchers discover bees can be left or right-handed - nreece
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-09/brisbane-researchers-discover-bees-can-be-left-or-right-handed/9130302
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kaikai
I'm a beekeeper, and I have a home-made bee escape to clear bees out of boxes
that are ready to be harvested. I put it between the honey super and the brood
box, and as it gets colder at night, bees move downward to keep the brood
warm. The escape has a series of baffles that the bees can only navigate in
one direction, so they're unable to get back into the honey super.

The only reason it works is that bees will consistently turn in one direction
when they're faced with an obstacle, very much like a maze-traversing
algorithm. Luckily my bee escape doesn't assume right or left handedness of
the bees :)

The design exists online and has been around for ages, so beekeepers at least
were already aware of this behavior.

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lostlogin
How many escape do you use per board? I’m just knocking some together and
can’t decide - we are early in the flow and I’m filling boxes at an alarming
rate (first season).

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kaikai
There's one escape hole on the board. The escape takes up quite a bit of room
so I think you'd have trouble fitting more. Congrats on your honey!

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Jaruzel
At least left-handed bees don't have to live with: Moulded Scissors, All
scissors (as the blades cut wrong) Double doors that open the wrong way, can-
openers, coin slots in machines designed to be used by the right hand only,
any moulded hand grip, 'ergonomic' mice... I could go on, but it's early, and
I'm too tired.

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stevekemp
Left-handed scissors are a revelation, if you've never had them they're worth
hunting for. (I like Fiskars.)

But yes, agreed so hard. From left-handed guitars, to hockey-sticks,
snowboards, we often have to go out of our way to get things that are as
"easy" as the more common version.

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zachsnow
Snowboards? In what way? (Genuinely curious what you mean, been snowboarding
for 24 years and can't guess, but of course I'm right handed!)

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stevekemp
Sorry that was a particularly bad example on my part! I was just thinking of
sports that I take part in where there is a difference.

Snowboards are symmetrical, but there is a choice between left-foot-forward
and right-foot-forward. Not something that makes a significant difference in
practice, once I'd realized I could stand "the other way" snowboarding was
easy, before then I struggled.

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stefanpie
Does someone have a direct link to the paper or study. I always hate hunting
for them in news articles.

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_Microft
[https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0184343](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0184343)

