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Bees and Beekeeping
Beekeeping is the science of managing honey bees and promoting healthy hive conditions. Honey production involves extracting honey from honey comb and packaging the honey for human use.
2,104 Questions
Three types of bees in each colony?
In a colony there is one queen, who lays all the eggs; up to 300 males, called drones, whose only purpose is to mate with new queens, and up to 60,000 workers, all female. The workers do all work in the colony and all the foraging though, despite being female, don't lay eggs.
Why are the bees important to humans?
Over 80 per cent of all plants are pollinated by insects, and of those, 87 per cent are pollinated by honey bees. If plants are not pollinated there will be no seed or fruit and the plants will die out.
One out of every three mouthfulls of food you eat are directly as a result of honey bee pollination.
No honey bee -- much less pollination -- major food shortages...
How long do honey bees live -?
28 to 35 days. The queens can live up to 2 years.
So, how long do honey bees live? Do beekeepers need to buy new bees every few months?
Answer: Absolutely not! This is one of the great things about honey bees. Unlike other animals (cows, goats, sheep, etc.) which eventually die, the honey bee colony really never dies! Well almost never - in the winter, about 5% of colonies may expire. In the spring, the beekeeper simply catches swarms that leave the good, strong hives that survived the winter - free of charge!
Good beekeepers can keep their bees alive for many years by simply catching those wayward swarms or splitting good hives to replace any losses. Effectively, a beekeeper may never spend money on bees or queens - once the bee business is established.
You have to think of the honey bees' colony - with its queen, drones, and workers - as a single living creature. On its own, a single bee (even a cluster of a hundred bees) is useless for producing honey or pollinating flowers. It takes the team work of the entire hive to make honey. This means a queen (which might live for several years), thousands of worker honey bees (which might live for several months, but continually are being replaced by the queen - she lays thousands of eggs every day!), and some drones to keep the whole enterprise happy. The colony has living organs - a mouth to feed itself (the forager bees); lungs (the bees that fan fresh air into the hive); a reproductive system (the swarms that fly out each spring); growth tissues (the new wax and new honey stored in 'fat cells' of the hive).... You can see, the the hive is alive and it truly may live for many, many years. Remember WE NEED honey bees to pollenate all of the produce that we eat and the flowers that we grow or they would die! Honey bees are NOT yellow jackets or wasps. Honey bees are an integral part of our ecosystem & are greatly affected by air pollution & all of the other changes in our environment. WHETHER YOU EAT HONEY OR NOT -- WE COULD NOT EXIST WITHOUT HONEY BEES.
Till they die.
Honey bees only live for about six weeks in the summer, as they literally work themselves to death. However, in the winter they can live for as long as six months as they have much less work to do.
How do you get rid of bees with out hurting the bees?
It will depend on where they are, but it is not a task for the inexperienced. If they are (or you think they may be) honey bees, contact a local beekeeper for help.
If they are 'pest bees' -- the local beekeeper can help you identify the animals -- then you may be required to call an exterminator.
Yes, bees can drown if they are submerged in water for too long. Their small bodies can become waterlogged, making it difficult for them to fly or survive. Bees typically avoid bodies of water to prevent drowning.
It is best to contact a professional pest control service to safely handle and remove killer bees. Attempting to kill them yourself may provoke a more aggressive response from the bees and put you at risk of getting stung.
What is rearing of bees called?
Rearing of bees is called beekeeping or apiculture. It involves managing colonies of bees in hives to produce honey, beeswax, and other bee-related products.
There are Africanized honey bees in Texas.
The name 'killer bee' was given to Africanized honey bees by sensationalist media -- the sting of an Africanised honey bee is no worse than that of the Western honey bee. However, they are not as docile as the Western honey bee and sting more readily and in larger numbers.
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How do killer bees protect themselves?
Killer bees protect themselves by swarming and stinging in large numbers when they feel threatened. They release a pheromone that signals other bees to attack, making them more aggressive than other honeybee species. Additionally, they will defend their hive vigorously against perceived threats.
Your question is a bit vague, since beehives do a lot! I'll do my best to hit the high points.
Beehive Functions
- pollination
- honey production
- propolis production
- local pollen production
- royal jelly production
- beeswax production
- food for birds, skunks, ants, spiders
So how does it "work" when they do all that? It's a long list, so let's itemize it.
Pollination
When honeybees are out flitting from flower to flower, they inadvertently pick up grains of pollen and transport them. The same effect is observed when the bees gather pollen.
Honey Production
Probably the most familiar function of beehives is honey production. See my answer about how bees make honey in the related links section.
Propolis Production
What the heck is propolis? Glad you asked. Propolis is what honeybees use in the wild to keep their hives' components stuck together; it's made from tree resins mixed with pollen, and can be brown, black, white, red, yellow, or green. Propolis is used in traditional medicines.
Local Pollen Production
Of course, honeybees don't actually make pollen; they just gather it from flowers more effectively than humans can. Honeybees use pollen for food (it's a good source of protein, apparently!) Humans use local pollen to relieve allergies.
Royal Jelly Production
Honeybees produce royal jelly in glands on top of their heads. They feed it to their larvae for the first three days after hatching, but it's called "royal" because it's the only food of queens for their whole lives.
Beeswax Production
Beeswax is produced in the fourth through eighth abdominal sections of workers. They build their entire hives from beeswax, produced one flake at a time, one bee at a time.
Food
I'm sorry to say that bees also serve near the bottom of the food chain as lunch for skunks, birds, ants, and spiders.
I hope that helps you understand a bit more of how beehives work. There's plenty more to learn, so I hope this has piqued your interest. :)
What does younger honey bees do?
they stay with there parents.(mostly) they stay with there parents.(mostly)
Why bees are so important to us?
Bees are important to us because they are pollinators, helping plants reproduce and produce fruits and seeds. They play a crucial role in ecosystems and agriculture by ensuring the growth of many food crops. Additionally, bees are also a vital part of biodiversity and contribute to the overall health of our planet.
Yes, within their stingers, bee have tiny poison sacks. These poisons are mainly what causes a bee sting to hurt so much.
Yes, worker bees can sting. They have a barbed stinger that they use to defend the hive when they feel threatened. When a worker bee stings, it releases venom that can cause pain and inflammation.
Queen bees are not rare within a colony, as every hive contains one queen responsible for laying eggs and leading the colony. However, finding a queen bee outside of a hive in the wild may be considered rare due to their specific role and location within the colony.
I think you mean 'Africanized bees'.
In the 1950s there was a research project in south-eastern Brazil where they were trying to find a variety or hybrid of honey bees that would be more suitable for a tropical climate. In 1959 some Tanzanian honey bee queens (apis mellifera scutella) were accidentally released. These bred with local Western honey bee drones to produce the Africanized strain -- the so-called 'killer bees'.
Their descendants have spread as far north as the southern United States, and as far south as the limits of tropical South America. They are not so tolerant of cold weather as the Western honey bee, and this may limit their spread.
Africanized bees are not a good strain for a beekeeper to have because they tend to be less docile and sting more readily. When a bee stings it releases an alarm pheromone at the site of the sting. Africanized bees are also more likely to sting in response to the pheromone, so one sting can lead to more. This is why the sensationalist media coined the term 'killer' bees. The sting of an Africanized bee is, in fact, no different to the sting of a Western honey bee.
What is the important job of bees?
Bees play a critical role in pollinating plants, which is essential for the reproduction of many crops and other plants. They help ensure the diversity of plant species and contribute to the production of fruits, vegetables, and nuts that are important for both human and animal diets.
A swarm of bees can vary in size, but it typically consists of thousands of worker bees along with a queen bee. Swarms are temporary clusters of bees that are formed during the process of reproduction within the colony.
How many eyes do the bees have?
Bees have five eyes. There are three simple eyes, called ocelli, in a triangle on the top of the head. These really only detect the difference between light and dark: they do not form an image.
Bees also have two compound eyes each side of the head. These form a mosaic-like image. Bees do not see fine detail, but their eyes are very sensitive to movement.
Their colour vision is also different from ours. It extends well into the ultra-violet part of the spectrum, but not so far into the red end of the spectrum. They are also sensitive to plane polarized light, which they use for navigation.
Not on their own, but bees have been taken up into space to see how they build comb in a no-gravity situation.
How many different bees are there?
There are roughly 20,000 different varieties of bee. The four major groups are
* Honey bees * Bumble bees * Stingless bees * Carpenter bees
Why are a bees adaptations important?
Bees' adaptations are important for their survival and reproduction in their specific habitats. These adaptations help bees efficiently collect nectar and pollen for food, build and maintain their hives, communicate with each other, and defend themselves from predators. Without these adaptations, bees would struggle to thrive in their environments.
What is the proper name for a beekeeper?
Nothing wrong with beekeeper but you could also use apiarist.
