Scientists have previously found that honeybees can do basic addition and subtraction. They can also understand the concept of zero.

In a new study, bees have proved to be even more intelligent. According to this new research, bees can learn and understand numbers higher than 4.

• The Journal of Experimental Biology says that bees can count numbers higher than 4
• But bees can count higher only if they are punished for the wrong answer.
• The experiment was conducted on 22 bees. They were divided into two groups and were taught to enter a Y-shaped maze.
• Inside the maze, there were two options. The correct option was an area with four shapes. The wrong option was an area with any other number from 1-10.
• Now, both the groups of the bees were trained to choose the correct option. If the bees chose the area with four shapes they were rewarded with sugary syrup. But if they chose the wrong option, then one group was punished with bitter-tasting syrup and the other group was given no punishment.
• The group of bees that were punished gave the correct answer more times than the other group. In fact, they were able to choose the four shapes 59% of the time when they were put beside the wrong area of 5 shapes.

This study shows that bees with their small brains can also do simple math and counting. But, yes they learn better if they are punished for the wrong answer.

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