Transcript www.essexcountybeekeepers.org

Topsfield, MA
Bee School
Bee Basics
February 20, 2007
Three Castes of Honey Bees
• There are three types of honeybees
(Apis millifera) in a hive:
• Thousands of female WORKERs,
• Hundreds of male DRONEs, and
• One QUEEN (complete female).
Bee Type Gestation
The Worker Bee
• The life of all honeybees
starts as an egg, about the
size of a comma "," which is
laid by the queen in the
bottom of a wax cell in the
brood area of a hive. A
worker egg hatches after 3
days into a larva. Nurse bees
feed it royal jelly at first, then
pollen & honey for 6 days. It
then becomes an inactive
pupa. The honey comb has
hexagon cells on both sides
of a vertical central wall. As
shown in the photo, these
cells are inclined upward,
primarily to retain liquid
nectar and honey.
The Worker Bee
• During its 14 days as a pupa,
sealed in a capped cell, it
grows into a worker (female)
bee, emerging on the 20th
day. Workers do everything
but lay eggs and mate. They
build the comb from wax
extruded from glands under
their abdomen. They clean,
defend, and repair the hive.
They feed the larva, the
queen, and the drones. They
gather nectar, pollen, water,
and propolis. They ventilate,
cool & heat the hive.
Age related jobs of the Worker
0-3 days
Cleaning self, comb, hive
3-15 days
Feeding older brood honey, pollen, water, some royal jelly
Feeding 0-3 day brood royal jelly (hypopharyngeal glands)
Queen attendant
12-15 days
Orientation flight (wing muscles)
15-18 days
Building Comb (wax glands)
Ventilating the hive
Processing\Packing Honey, pollen, propolis, and water
Guard duty
21+ days
Field Bee – Forager, Scout, Robber
Duties of A Worker Bee
The Drones
• Male bees are called drones.
They emerge in 24 days,
larger than the female
workers. They have large
eyes and no stinger. They
lead a life of leisure, doing
no work while being fed by
the workers. Their sole
purpose is to mate with a
queen from any hive,
thereby transferring the
genetic traits of their mother.
They die upon mating, or are
expelled from the hive as
winter approaches.
The Queen
• Before an old queen dies, or
departs to start another hive,
she lays an egg in a large
queen cell. The nurse bees
feed the larva a diet of only
royal jelly, or bee's milk,
made from a gland on their
heads. In only 16 days a new
queen emerges. She seeks
out and destroys any rival
queens, because there can
be only one queen per
colony.
The Queen
• When 10 days old, a
new queen takes a high
maiden flight, pursued
by drones from nearby
hives. In about 13
minutes, she mates
with 7 or more of them,
storing their sperm for
the rest of her life of 2-5
years. She produces
chemical scents which
regulate hive activity.
The Queen
• The queen lays about
1200 eggs per day,
about 200,000 per
season. This is
necessary since worker
bees only live 6 weeks
in the summertime; and
a colony needs to have
40 to 50 thousand bees
at its peak. She is cared
for by the worker bees.
This queen has been
marked with a red dot
for easy identification.
Worker Bee Behavior
•
Worker bees gather pollen
which they stick to their back
legs, to carry back to the hive
where it is used as food. Pollen
from the stamens of one flower,
stick to their bodies, and is
carried to another flower where
it rubs off onto the pistil,
resulting in cross pollination.
Mankind's food supply depends
greatly on crop pollination by
honeybees. Nectar is sucked up
through the proboscis, mixed
with enzymes in the stomach,
and carried back to the hive,
where it is stored in wax cells
and evaporated into honey.
Worker Bee Behavior
• Worker bees must maintain
the hive's brood chamber at
94 degrees F to incubate the
eggs. If it is too hot, they
collect water and deposit it
around the hive, then fan air
through with their wings
causing cooling by
evaporation. If it is too cold,
they cluster together to
generate body heat.
Propolis, or tree resin, is
used to seal any openings in
the hive against drafts or
invaders.
External Anatomy
Glands of a Worker Honey Bee