The Amazing Honey Bee
Photo by D.J. Shlien
We hear about various problems with
bees:
bee mites
Africanized bees
colony collapse disorder.
Should we care? After all bees are just
a small insect, one of very many.
What is the most
important
contribution to the
world by honey
bees?
Pollinator Protection Act of 2007
As a result of the CCD (colony collapse disorder) problem, this
bill was submitted to congress on June 26 to fund bee research
(>7 M$/yr for several years). As part of the justification, the bill
states that:
• “pollination by honey and native bees adds more than
$18,000,000,000 annually to the value of United States crops;
• “1/3 of the food supply of the United States depends on bee
pollination, which makes the management and protection of
pollinators an issue of paramount importance to the security of
the United States food supply system;”
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-1694
“No other pollinating insect can be as
easily managed and manipulated as the
honey bee.”
(Caron)
The Hive – the feral nest
The Hive - skeps
The Langstroth Hive
Photo by Kristin Rohrbeck
Brood frame with capped honey
Photo by Deborah Hautau
Bees capping honey cells
Photo by Deborah Hautau
Pollen cells
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
* segmented body (2 or 3
regions)
* paired segmented
appendages
* exoskeleton
* bilaterally symmetrical with
tubular alimentary canal
* open circulatory system
(dorsal blood vessel and
open body cavity)
* Invertebrates
Class: Insecta (over 1,000 species can
be found around your home)
* Head, thorax, abdomen
* one pair of antennae
* 3 pairs of legs
* 1 or 2 pairs of wings
Order: Hymenoptera
* clear membrane like wings
* includes social insects
* constricted abdomen
* do not damage plants by direct
feeding
Superfamily: Apoidea
* branched body hairs
* special body hairs for pollen
transport
* plant pollen and nectar sole
source of food
Family: Apidae
* Includes honey bee and bumble
bee
* most are eusocial
*cooperative brood care
* reproductive castes
* generation overlap
Genus: Apis
* 6 species (includes Apis mellifera)
Bee Types within Colony
Queen
Drone
Worker
The Queen
• She is longer than the worker bee.
• The only job of mated queen is to lay
eggs – 800 (typical) to 2000 per day.
• She is groomed and fed by the worker
bees.
• There is only one queen in a colony.
• It is difficult to find the queen in the
colony.
Photo by Deborah Hautau
• Mating takes place 200 to 300 ft. in the air.
• After mating, the drone loses his reproduction
organ (barbed) in the queen and he dies.
• Only about 1% of the drones get to mate.
• Over several mating flights the queen will have
mated with a dozen or more drones.
• She stores the sperm in a sac in her abdomen
and does not mate again.
• She starts laying eggs within 3 days.
• As she lays an egg, a few spermatozoa pass out
of the storage and into the vagina where one of
them fertilizes the egg.
• Unfertilized eggs become drones.
Bee Types within Colony
Queen
Drone
Worker
The Drone
• He is also larger than the worker and is more
barrel shaped than the queen.
• He is hatched from unfertilized eggs.
• He doesn’t forage for food, he doesn’t help with
the building of comb, nor can he defend the hive
having no stinger.
• He is fed and cared for by the workers.
• When cold weather approaches and food may be
scarce, the worker bees force the drones out of
the hive.
The
Drone
Photo from http://www.agpix.com/catalog/AGPix_ScCa13/large/AGPix_ScCa13_0086_Lg.jpg
The Worker
• is the smallest of the three types. (average weight 80 mg)
• there are about 50,000 bees in a hive.
• her specific jobs changes with her age:
- clean cells
- undertaking
- nursing
- attending the queen
- accepting nectar from foragers, deposit it in cells, add
enzyme to nectar, evaporate water from nectar, also accept
and pack pollen
- fanning for temperature/humidity control
- comb and cap building
- guard duty
- foraging after taking orientation flights
Find the queen
Photo by Deborah Hautau
Find the queen
Photo by Deborah Hautau
Find the queen
Photo by Thomas Jenkins
Anatomy
Drawing modified from R. E. Snodgrass
Drawing from R.E. Snodgrass
Head
Major glands of the worker bee
Pollen basket
Bees with full pollen
baskets entering hive.
•
Photo by D.J. Shlien
Digestive and excretory organs
From H.A. Dade
Eggs
Eggs as seen in cross-section of cells.
larvae
Eggs and
larvae
Photo by Deborah Hautau
Bee brood summary
Communication
Dance
Communicates the location and profitability of a food source to other
foragers of the hive.
Pheromones*
Various pheromones are secreted by the queen and by the workers
from their glands.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* “Any chemical substance released by an animal that serves to influence the
physiology or behavior of other members of the same species.” (Random
House Webster’s College Dictionary, Random House, NY, 1991)
Some of the many functions of the
pheromones:
Queen bee pheromones
1. attracts workers to her
2. informs the colony that a queen is present
3. serves as sexual attractant
4. stimulates small population hive to greater
activity
Worker bee pheromones
1. are used to identifying bees of a colony
2. communicates an alarm signal
3. attract bees to the hive
In the future, “it may be possible to artificially introduce specific (chemical)
messages into hives.” (Caron)
Seasonal management
• Inspect hives regularly:
- summer: once or twice per month.
- winter: not at all unless there is a warm day.
- spring and fall: thorough inspection every
two weeks or so, as needed.
• Inspect for: performance of queen, disease
symptoms, poorly drawn combs, damaged
hive.
• In the fall:
- harvest honey.
- check hive for adequate stores of honey and
pollen for the bees.
Uncapping
knife
Photo by Jason Keeler
Honey
Extractor
Photo by Jason Keeler
Main Bee Products
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Pollination service
Honey
Wax
Pollen
Royal jelly
Bee brood
Propolis
Bee venom
Mead (honey wine)
Conclusions
• Bee keeping is fun.
• It is not time-consuming.
• Beekeepers are friendly and very helpful.
• It is a relatively inexpensive hobby and can be financially
profitable.
• There is a lot to learn. New situations arise all the time.
• Most bee keepers are older - there is a need for new,
young bee keepers.
• The world needs more bee keepers - we may be facing
an new crisis with CCD. If the problem is not solved (I
believe it will be solved.) the cost of fruit, vegetables and
meat can rise tremendously.
For
more about beekeeping
and
volunteering to help with hive work:
contact me
shlien@svsu.edu
or
extension 4239.
S. O. B.
S. O. B.
Save
Our
Bees
Main References
Blackiston, Howland (2002) Beekeeping for Dummies, Wiley Publishing, Inc.,
Indianapolis, IN.
Caron, Dewey M. (2006) Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping, Wicwas
Press, Chesire, CT.
Crane, Eva (1990) Bees and Beekeeping, Science, Practice and World
Resources, Cornell University Press.
Sammataro, Diana and Avitabile, Alphonse (1998) The Beekeeper’s
Handbook, Comstock Publ. Assoc.
NOTE: Much of this presentation (including unattributed photos) is based on
material in Caron (2006).
A sample page
(one of 53) of
the bibliography
from Crane
(1990).