HONEYBEES

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HONEYBEES
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How do honeybee hives reproduce?

• When a hive is ready to divide, the queen will
  take most of the workers and leave in a swarm.
• The old hive will quickly replace the queen and
  workers.

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There are three types of honeybees.
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The Queen bee is the reproductive female.
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Drone honeybees are males with no stingers.
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There are usually over 80,000 worker bees in a
hive.Why work so hard? The queen is their
identical twin.
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Pollen is carried into the nest or hive on the
hind legs of the field bees and placed directly
in the cells. It is sometimes called bees
bread.
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Worker bee housekeeping (days 1 to 3)

• One of her first tasks is cleaning out the cell
  from which she just emerged. This and other empty
  cells are cleaned and polished and left
  immaculate to receive new eggs and to store
  nectar and pollen.

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Worker bee undertakers (days 3 to 16)

• During the first couple weeks of her life, the
  worker bee removes any bees that have died and
  disposes of the corpses as far from the hive as
  possible. Similarly, diseased or dead brood are
  quickly removed before becoming a health threat
  to the colony.

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Nursing young worker bees (days 4 to 12)

• The young worker bees tend to their baby
  sisters by feeding and caring for the developing
  larvae. On average, nurse bees check a single
  larva 1,300 times a day.

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Attending to the queen bee (days 7 to 12)

• Because her royal highness is unable to tend to
  her most basic needs by herself, some of the
  workers do these tasks for her.

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Collecting nectar for the hive (days 12 to 18)

• Young worker bees also take nectar from foraging
  field bees that are returning to the hive. The
  house bees deposit this nectar into cells
  earmarked for this purpose. The workers similarly
  take pollen from returning field bees and pack
  the pollen into cells. Both the ripened honey and
  the pollen are food for the colony.

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Fanning the beehive (days 12 to 18)

• Worker bees also take a turn at controlling the
  temperature and humidity of the hive. The workers
  also perform another kind of fanning, but it
  isnt related to climate control. It has more to
  do with communication.

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Becoming the bee hive (days 12 to 35)

• Worker bees that are about 12 days old are mature
  enough to begin producing beeswax. The wax flakes
  they produce help with the building of new wax
  comb and in the capping of ripened honey and
  cells containing developing pupae.

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Guarding the hive (days 18 to 21)

• The last task of a house bee before she ventures
  out is that of guarding the hive. They are poised
  and alert, checking each bee that returns to the
  hive for a familiar scent. Only family members
  are allowed to pass.

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Becoming field bees (days 22 to 42)

• With her life half over, the worker bee now
  ventures outside of the hive and joins the ranks
  of field bees. Y
• Foraging bees visit 5 million flowers to produce
  a single pint of honey. They forage a two- to
  three-mile (four- to five-kilometer) radius from
  the hive in search of food.

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Field honey bees collect flower nectar.
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How do they make Honey?

• Start with flower nectar collected by field bees
• Back at the hive, house bees chew the nectar to
  add enzymes
• Fan the wet honey to remove water
• Seal up the honey until needed.
• Natures most perfect food!

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Disappearing Honeybees

• Up to 2/3 of honey bee hives are turning up
  empty.
• It has a name Colony Collapse Disorder
• Pesticides? Carried in with the pollen.
• Cell phone radiation? Probably not
• Disease a fungus and a virus working together?
  At least part of the problem.

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Why should we care?

• Bee pollination is responsible for more than 15
  billion in increased crop value each year.
• About one mouthful in three in our diet directly
  or indirectly benefits from honey bee
  pollination.
• Commercial production of many specialty crops
  like almonds and other tree nuts, berries, fruits
  and vegetables are dependent on pollinated by
  honey bees.