"[The European honey bee] hasn’t stumbled upon the swarm countermeasure, so the hornet scout inevitably marks a European bee nest and returns with its friends." Given how devastatingly effective these hornets are, the honey bee swarming behaviour seems to be a completely "over-the-top" reaction that thankfully works for them, although the bees (surely?) have no idea why. Have any beekeepers been successful teaching E…
How do you go about "teaching European honey bees new, complex behaviors"?
That's exactly what I'm wondering - whether there have been any instances of deliberate human-caused epigenetic changes in bees. In light of @ansible's sister comment that worker bees only live a few months, teaching or learning any new behaviour, let alone one as complex as recognizing and swarming an intruder to death, seems to be even more unlikely.