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HONEY BEES

Honey bees are brown or brown and yellow and generallyslimmer and smaller than bumble bees. In Europe theyare kept by beekeepers in hives so that the honey theyproduce can be collected at the end of the season. In thewild, honey bees nest in cavities in buildings, rocks orhollow trees. However, there are fewer and fewer feral(wild) colonies in Britain and now the bee is fast becomingdependent on mankind for its survival.

The mother bee. as she is known in many places inEurope, is indeed the mother of the whole colony. It isonly a queen that can be fertilized and lay eggs. Herlong body is adapted to this function and at her primeshe can lay a thousand eggs a day more than her ownbody weight. Attendant workers feed and lick her,thereby transferring a complex chemical known asqueen pheromone around the nest. This pheromone isimportant in the regulation of the colony. Queens can

live for four or more years, much longer than workerbees, but as they get older their egg laying capacitywanes.

The queen bee, marked with a red dot, surroundedby her court. She is bigger and her body is moreelongated than those of the workers around her.

The colony at its height will typically number somethinglike:

1 queen (female)300 drones (males)25,000 older workers, foragers (female)25,000 young workers in the hive attendingthe brood that might consist of:

9,000 larvae requiring food6,000 eggs (from which the larvaehatch)20,000 older larvae and pupae in sealedcells which need no attention except tobe kept warm at around 35C.

Queens develop fromeggs, just like workers.They become queensas a result of being feda different diet by thenurse bees when theyare still at the larvalstage . The queen cellis very different fromordinary cells andhangs vertically some-

times between combsbut more usually at thebottom of the comb.

A queen cell in which thelarva is fed royal jelly.

The Queen

In nature the colony will make its nest in dark cavitieslike the small cave on the left in which the honey combcan just be seen. Honey bees, Latin name Apis mellifera,that are kept by beekeepers all over the world areoffered purpose-built homes called hives.

The Colony

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After another week she could become a guard beeinspecting all the bees that enter the hive and seeing off

intruders. There are other house bee tasks such asreceiving nectar, helping to seal cracks or fissures in thehive, fanning to help air circulation. The final task isseeking food, known as foraging. Worker bees raised inthe spring and summer have a short hectic life of about 7weeks while those raised in the autumn do not have tofeed the brood and live through to the following spring.

The main part of a bees life is spent finding nectar andpollen, an activity known as foraging. Nectar is the sweetliquid plants produce to attract insects, and even birdsand bats, that they need to ensure that pollination, part ofplant reproduction, takes place. Nectar provides the bees

with carbohydrate and is converted into honey for storage.They also collect pollen which is the bees only sourceof protein essential for the growth and development ofthe brood. They also collect water and gum from plants.

The birth of a beea worker emerging from its cell inthe honeycomb. Nearby are two cells which have beencleaned after occupation and now contain freshly laideggs

The male bee or drone (top) cannot sting. Worker bees,females (bottom) can sting but only once after whichthey die. A queen bee can sting more than once.

Bee senses - the head view of a worker on the left andthat of a drone on the right with its much bigger eyes.

Worker bees

The queen mainly lays eggs and all the tasks of the hiveare done by the aptly named workers, which are all female,and are incapable of mating or, in normal circumstances,laying eggs. They carry out many different tasks in theirlives. All workers start as an egg, which in 3 dayshatches into a larva that is supplied with food and growsrapidly to fill the cell. After 9 days the cell is sealed and

the process of development continues until the adult beeemerges after a total of 21 days. Her first task is to cleancells, including the one from which she has just emergedin preparation for more egg laying by the queen. Hernext job is to feed the developing larvae as a nurse bee.After 10 days her wax glands become active and so shecan help build more honeycomb.

On warm still days they assemble in small clouds in

places known as drone congregation areas waiting forqueens who can mate with several males in turn. At theend of the summer the drones are thrown out of the hiveso as not to be a drain on winter stores.

Drones

These are the male bees and their main purpose is tofertilize the queen. They are only reared by the colonywhen young queens are likely to be present. Drones developfrom unfertilised eggs. The queen controls whether anegg is fertilized or not as it is laid in slightly bigger cellsthan those of worker brood. Drones are a little largerthan workers and develop taking a few days longer to

hatch out. The egg hatches after 3 days and the larva isthen fed for seven days and so receives more broodfood than the larvae of worker bees. The cell is thensealed with a domed cap of wax.

The drones emerge after 25 days then, after a week ofbeing fed and helping themselves to honey stores, theyare ready to fly. They are extremely strong flyers andhave large eyes and highly developed vision.

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There is little need to fear a swarmas this man demonstrates.

A year in the colony

Colonies survive between seasons with workers and thequeen clustering for warmth and feeding on their honeyreserves through the winter.

Winter is the quiet period. At this time the colony will consistof a queen and between 10,000 and 20,000 workers.There is no brood and there are no drones. When thetemperature falls below 18C the bees cluster togetherto conserve heat. They move within the cluster rather likea mass of male penguins over wintering in Antarctica.Gradually they use up the honey that they stored fromthe previous summer. As the days begin to lengthenbrood rearing begins and for this to be successful thebees must be able to collect pollen which is their sourceof protein.

Brood rearing increases with the warmer weather andthe additional flowers that provide nectar and pollen.As the colony increases in size swarming can takeplace. This is described in an old English adage:

A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay,A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon,

A swarm of bees in July isnt worth a fly.

With the advent of global warming and cyclic climatechanges this may need revising for swarms in April arenow commonplace in Britain.

Honeybee swarms are about the size of a rugby footballand will rest on trees and shrubs while sending out scoutbees to visit potential nest sites until a suitable one isfound. Honeybees will sting if provoked so if a swarm isfound in a garden or public place allow it to settle andeventually it will move on. Often a local beekeeper canbe contacted to remove the swarm without harming thebees.

Swarming is the colonys method of reproduction: the oldqueen leaves the hive with up to half the workers whilethe remainder stay with the new queen, who after mating,will commence egg laying. Meanwhile the swarm willsettle in a new location that has been found by scout

bees or, more likely these days, has been provided bythe vigilant beekeeper. The colony has thus split into twoand each part will work hard to build itself into a viableunit to face the hardship of winter.

Control of the colony

The control of the honeybee colony is a complex andfascinating subject. Although the life of the colony centreson the queen, colony decisions are taken by thecollective behaviour of the bees. Pheromones, complexchemical substances produced to convey precisemessages to other bees, play an important part in thisseemingly democratic activity.

The queen, drones, worker bees and brood all producepheromones. The queen pheromone attracts workers toher, stimulates foraging, brood rearing and comb building,but inhibits queen rearing. If a queen is removed from acolony it has a dramatic effect and the whole colony,perhaps 50,000 bees, is aware of the change within 15minutes. Food sharing brings about communication: twobees meet and one offers nectar and the other accepts.Thus every bee within the colony is constantly sharingnot only food but also the same odour. Minute traces ofpheromone are passed during the food exchange process.The absence of a queen is quickly realised by all thebees and so they will set about creating a replacement.This explains why when a colony is very large manyworkers are no longer in close enough contact with thequeen and so create a new queen leading to a swarmand the division of the colony.

Contact (and thereby odour exchange)

between bees through the process offood sharing, known as trophallaxis, isimportant. This is how communication,and therefore, control of all the hivesactivities takes place.

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If you would like to know more about honey beesthese books are what you need

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