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 doesnt forage for food, he doesnt 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 Websters 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 Beekeepers

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).