Essex County Beekeepers' Association 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 See Page 11 in “Beekeeping Handbook” Also note “Life Cycle” poster on the wall. While you do not need to memorize these now, you will need to know all these stages to tend to the bees.

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 will fly several miles to a “Drone congregation area”. She will typically take two mating flights and mate with 8-16 drones. The queen will not mate again for the rest of her 2-6 year life. She stores the sperm in a sac and dispenses the sperms one at a time as she lays eggs.

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. When the queen lays an egg she also adds one of her stored sperms to fertilize the egg. The resulting egg will be female. If however the wax cell is of a lager diameter, she will NOT add a sperm. This will result in a DRONE. Drones do not have fathers! If the workers want a new queen they move a fertilized egg into a special large wax cell and feed the larvae a special diet of Royal Jelly. This special diet results in a queen. The workers are really the boss of the hive. By creating larger cells they can increase the drone population. By moving fertilized eggs to larger cells and altering the diet, they can create new queens

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

Home

Internal Anatomy Two guts. The first is used to store and transport nectar from the field back to hive. The second Is for digestion.

Bee Crossing

Bee Taxonomy Kingdom…. Animal Phylum……Arthropoda Class………Insecta Order………Hymenoptera Family……..Apidae Genus……..Apis Species……mellifera

Bee Taxonomy Phylum Arthropod External Skeleton, Chitinous, Segmented, Invertebrates Class Insecta Hexapoda Six legged 3 major body parts, head, thorax, abdomen Order Hymenoptera 2 sets of joined wings ‘Hymen’, Greek god of marriage SubOrder Apocrita Ants, Bees, and Wasps SuperFamily Apoidea Bees Family Apidae Food exchange, pollen baskets, storage of honey & pollen SubFamily Tribe Apini Perennial, social colonies, highly eusocial Genus Apis Honeybees Species mellifera

Species of Bees Apis cerana Apis koschevnikovi Apis nigrocineta Apis dorsata Apis laboriosa Apis florea Apis andreniformis Apis mellifera

Species: Apis mellifera A mellifera mellifera – German (1630) A mellifera ligustica – Italian (1830) A mellifera carnica – Carniolan - Yugoslavia (1883) A mellifera caucasca – Caucasian – Caucasus (1905) mellifera scutellata – African (1950) Hybrids Buckfast Starline …..

Genetic Traits of Races Color Temperament Handling Ease Production Swarming Tendency Winter Hardiness Propolizing Disease Resistance Cleanliness Population of Hive Pollen Hoarding Honey Hoarding Conservation of stores Plant preference Tongue Length Whiteness of Cappings

External Anatomy Head Thorax Abdomen

External Anatomy Worker bees produce Wax from glands under their abdomen. The bees first gorge themselves with honey and then sit idles for about 24 hours. This is one of the most difficult jobs bees do. While producing wax the Bees “join hands” called “festooning”. See page 18.

The Head

The Eyes Two compound eyes similar to other insects. Additionally three more simple eyes which can detect the polarized light and used for navigation by polarity of sunlight.

The Mouth Parts The tongue is like a mop.