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.

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. “1/3 of the food supply of the United States depends on honey and naive bee pollination. The protection of pollinators is an issue of importance to the security of the United States food supply system;”

“No other pollinating insect can be as easily managed and manipulated as the honey bee.” (Caron)

Inside the hive

Early Man Made Hives

1851-The Langstroth Hive Photo by Kristin Rohrbeck

Bees capping honey cells Photo by Deborah Hautau

Pollen cells

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 sperm passes out of 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.

Photo from The Drone

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

Pollen basket

Photo by D.J. Shlien Bees with full pollen baskets entering hive.

Eggs- 3 days (rotate 90 degrees each day)

Eggs as seen in cross-section of cells.

Larvae- 6 days. After 6 days the cells are capped and considered pupae

Photo by Deborah Hautau Eggs and larvae

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.

Photo by Jason Keeler Uncapping knife

Photo by Jason Keeler Honey Extractor

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.

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).