Introduction
Honey bees are social insects, which suggest that they cohabit in big, well-organized family. Social insects are highly evolved insects that engage in a range of complex jobs not exercised by the wide range of singular insects.
Interaction, complex nest building, environmental control, protection, and also division of labor are simply some of the actions that honey bees have actually established to exist successfully in social colonies.
These remarkable habits make social insects as a whole, and also honey bees particularly, amongst one of the most interesting creatures in the world.
Type of bees in a nest
A honey bee colony generally consists of 3 types of adults: workers, drones, and a queen. Numerous thousand worker bees work together in nest building, food collection, and brood rearing.
Each member has a definite specified task to carry out, related to its adult age. However, surviving as well as reproducing takes the cooperation of the entire colony. Individuals (workers, drones, and also queens) cannot make it through without the support of the swarm.
Queen Bee
Each swarm has only one queen normally except for specific conditions. Due to the fact that she is the only sexually developed female, her key feature is reproduction. Queen bee produces both fertilized and unfertilized eggs.
Queens lay the greatest number of eggs in the springtime and early summer. During peak production, queens might lay up to 1,500 eggs daily. One queen may produce up to 250,000 eggs per year and perhaps greater than a million in her lifetime.
Identification of Queen Bee
A queen is quickly identified by other members of the colony. Her body is typically much longer than either the drone’s or worker’s, especially during the egg-laying duration when her abdomen is substantially extended.
Her wings cover only around two-thirds of the abdomen, whereas the wings of both workers and drones nearly reach up to the abdominal area when folded up. The queen can live for many years– occasionally for as long as 5, however, the ordinary effective lifetime is 2 to 3 years.
Drones (Bees)
Drones (male bees) are the biggest bees in the swarm. They are typically present only during late spring and summer. The drone’s head is a lot larger than that of either the queen or worker. Drones have no stinger, plant pollen baskets, or wax glands.
Their primary feature is to feed the virgin queen during her mating trip. Although drones perform no valuable job.
While drones usually count on workers for food, they can feed themselves within the hive after they are 4 days old. Because drones eat three times as much food as workers, too much number drones might place an included stress on the nest’s food supply.
Drones remain in the hive up until they are about 8 days old, after which they begin to take positioning trips. Trip from the hive usually occurs between noon and also 4:00 p.m. Drones have never been observed taking food from flowers.
Worker’s bees
Workers are the tiniest as well as comprise most of the bees inhabiting the nest. They are sexually undeveloped females as well as under normal conditions do not lay eggs. Workers have specialized structures, such as brood food glands, scent glands, wax glands, and also pollen baskets, which permit them to do all the labors of the hive.
They clean up and polish the cells, feed the brood, take care of the queen, remove debris and particles, handle incoming nectar, develop beeswax combs, safeguard the entryway, as well as air-condition and also aerate the hive throughout their first few weeks as adults.
Later as an area, they forage for nectar, plant pollen, water, as well as propolis (plant sap).
Life of Worker Bees
The life expectancy of the worker bees during summer is about 6 weeks. Workers raised in the fall may live as long as 6 months, enabling the nest to endure the winter months as well as helping in the rearing of new generations in the spring before they pass away.