Beekeeping Basics
All About Bees
Honey bees belong to the largest order of insects known as Hymenoptera, which translates to “membranous wings,” and includes sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. The scientific name for a honey bee is Apis mellifera. They are able to provide a social service with their pollination, honey production, and propolis, which is a mixture that bees collect from tree buds to fill in open gaps in their hives. Although the number of new beekeepers is on the rise, the number of honey bee colonies is on the decline. In 2006, there were 6 million registered colonies, but by 2009 the population dropped to 2.4 million. This phenomenon, called colony collapse disorder (CCD), was first reported in 2006, although recent studies suggest it may have begun as early as 2004. The main characteristic of CCD is a sudden loss of a colony’s adult bee population, with no dead bees found inside or near the hive. Although extensive research has been conducted on this plight, no singular reason has been discovered as the cause. Scientists have narrowed down the possibilities to include pesticides in our environment, diseases, and poor honey bee management, to name a few. However, the treatment for this serious disorder has not been discovered. But although it might not seem like a good time to start this new venture, in reality, it is the best time. Honey bee researchers are encouraging people to take up beekeeping to help reverse this decline in population — properly managed hives have a much better chance of survival than hives in the wild.
The Latest Buzz on a Vanishing Species
By Nedda Pourahmady
Bees, a vital part of the insect population, are dying out at rapid rates. In the beginning of 2007, news reports surfaced when alarmed beekeepers discovered that half of their bees had disappeared. The queen bee and a few newborns were the only existing bees found in the hives.
Because honey bees are essential to the pollination of food crops, their decline has a widespread impact. Honey bees contribute to $15 billion worth of agricultural products. Every year in February, beekeepers traveling to California bring more than 1 million hives containing approximately 40 billion honey bees. In a matter of weeks, the bees work hard to pollinate 80 percent of the world’s almond crop, which amounts to about $1 billion in exports.
Provided by FDACS-DPI (University of Florida)
As a result of colony collapse disorder (CCD), food and honey production have been disrupted significantly. The primary victims of the disorder are domestic, commercial honey bees. Bees transferred around for crop pollination also seem to be affected.
However, this does not mark the beginning of vanishing bees. In 1915, beekeepers in several states experienced significant reductions in bee counts. The direct cause for CCD is unknown, but there are some theories attempting to explain the phenomenon.
Many bees encounter stress from extended periods of pollination. These overworked insects may develop a weak immune system, making them more vulnerable to external pathogens and deterring their ability to navigate. Furthermore, varroa and tracheal mites may introduce an unknown virus to bees.
Fortunately, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has implemented a plan to fight against CCD. In 2007, the CCD Steering Committee was formed. The group, comprising representatives from other government agencies, academia, beekeepers, and professional organizations, developed the Colony Collapse Disorder Action Plan. This four-part strategy studies several components, such as honey bee production and health status, pesticide exposure, and bee stress and immunity levels.
Finally, the EPA is doing its part to cease CCD by conducting thorough evaluations of all pesticides. Additionally, bee toxicity data is examined and further testing occurs when necessary. The agency also mandated the use of bee protection language on labeling in order to avoid the use of pesticides that are harmful to bees.
The bees bred for beekeeping are usually docile and gentle. They are happy to provide their services as long as they are treated with respect. They are social insects, much like ants and termites. This means that they live in groups of thousands, all of whom work together as a specialized unit to gather food, care for their young, and perform other life-sustaining responsibilities. If they are somehow unable to rejoin their colony, they will die.
The bees get their nutrients from the protein in the pollen and their carbohydrates from the honey. They feed their young a special food product known as “bee bread.” Bee bread is a mixture of pollen, nectar, and honey. If a particular larva is perceived to be a future queen, she will receive a special nutrient called royal jelly that is secreted from the hypopharyngeal glands in the heads of young workers. Though all bee larvae eat some portion of royal jelly, only future queens receive it as their sole food source.
Bees are fascinating creatures, not only because of their ability to make wax and honey, but also because of their lifestyle characteristics, and mannerisms. Bees cannot function as single organisms. They are unique in the animal kingdom and serve as a model for humans.
Bees are insects with a hard skeleton on the outside, called an exoskeleton. The scientific term is “chitinous exoskeleton,” which has several movable plates of chitin overlapping each other. Over these chitin plates are coarse and branched hairs that help in pollen collection and the regulation of body temperature. Chitin is a polymer of glucose that can support a lot of weight. This material causes bees to shed their skins several times during the larva stages and also prevents the bees from growing once they reach their adult stage.
Their bodies are divided into three sections and have some degree of flexibility because of a narrow neck and waist between the main sections. The specific organs of drones, workers, and queens all vary slightly. To learn the body parts of a honey bee, see Appendix A.
Head
The honey bee’s head is flat and triangular in shape. It contains the brain and sensory organs that control sight, smell, touch, and taste. A bee’s brain is a collection of approximately 950,000 specialized neurons.
There are two antennae on the front of the head, called “feelers.” They are used for smelling, tasting, and touching. The feelers are made up of a basal stalk called a “scrape” and a long piece called a “flagellum” that is divided into 12 segments.
Although the drone’s antenna has 12 segments, it is shorter than the female’s antenna. The antennae are controlled by four muscles with thousands of tiny sensors that relay messages and help bees identify water, flowers, colonies, and obstacles.
The mouth, which includes the mandibles, is a complex body part. The mandibles are located on both sides of the mouth. Bees use their mouth and mandibles to collect pollen, carry water or food, feed the larvae, and form wax. The mandibles are like claws. They can pinch, hold, and grind by moving side to side. The mandibular gland is located above the mandibles. In the queen, this serves an important purpose: Her gland secretes her “queen substance,” which is a powerful pheromone used to communicate with her colony and maintain the social organization. In drones, this gland is almost completely reduced.
The labrum is a wide plate on the front of the mouth, directly above the mandibles. Below the mandibles are the maxillae. The labrum and the maxillae support the proboscis. The proboscis is inside the mouth. This amazing body part is like a retractable straw, formed when the front part of the mouth, the labrum, and the maxillae come together. When needed, the proboscis sucks up water, nectar, and honey with the use of a pump inside the bee’s head. The pump also works in reverse to push food out to young bees.
There are two large compound eyes at the front of the head that allow the bee to see in normal conditions. The compound eyes are actually clusters of smaller eyes, each with their own nerve endings that lead to the brain. These compound eyes are able to see polarized and ultraviolet lights. The ocelli — three smaller eyes used to see inside the hive — are located on the top of the head. On drones, the larger wrap-around compound eyes practically overshadow their ocelli.
Thorax
The thorax is the middle section of the bee and where the two pairs of wings and six legs are connected. It serves as the bee’s chest and contains holes called spiracles. Spiracles are used for breathing and are found all along the thorax and abdomen. Each hole is attached to the bee’s trachea, where air passes through the bee’s body by its own pressure and movement. The thorax contains all the muscles and organs used for transportability.
The two pairs of wings are attached to each side of the bee’s body. When at rest, they can fold down separately, but when in flight, the pairs on either side work together. The wings are controlled by muscles in the thorax. They can angle and straighten for optimum flight and hovering capabilities. Top-to-bottom movement is conducted by muscles that do not touch the wings. Instead, they contract and distort the shape of the thorax.
The thorax contains the bee’s six legs. Each leg has six main joints with taste sensors at the tips. Each pair of legs is slightly different. The front two have a special device for cleaning the antennae. The middle legs are used for walking and for packing pollen and propolis into the pollen bags, which are attached to the rear legs. The legs are covered in tiny hairs used as brushes to comb the body free of pollen. At the end of each leg is a claw-like foot that allows the bee to adhere to rough surfaces. At the base of the food, there is a pad that helps the foot adhere to glass or other smooth surfaces.
Abdomen
The abdomen is where the bee’s internal organs — heart, stomach, wax and scent glands, intestines, and stingers — are stored. The reproductive organs are also there. The males do not have the modified egg-laying apparatus, called an ovipositor, which serves as the stinger in the female species.
Bees actually have two stomachs: the honey stomach and their true stomach. The honey stomach, called the “crop,” holds the pollen and nectar. When foraging, bees return to the colony hive and regurgitate the nectar into cells. The pollen is digested in the true stomach, and once the food is digested, it is absorbed in the intestine. The digested food passes through the intestine into the rectum, where it will stay until it is passed during a cleansing flight.
The stinger is a safeguard for the hive and colony. The poison released from the stinger causes pain, redness, and swelling. Some people are allergic to the stings and may experience anaphylactic shock or death. These are severe reactions, but the most common is a body rash. The males, or drones, do not have a stinger and can be handled by the beekeeper.
When a bee uses its stinger on another bee, it can use it more than once, but if the bee uses its stinger on a human or animal, the stinger gets lodged in the skin and pulls out a large portion of the bee’s organs, resulting in death.
Castes of Bees
While all bees may look alike, there are three different castes, or types: queen, drone, and worker. It is important for a beekeeper to be able to tell the three apart. Certain characteristics can help with in this daunting task. Female bees can be either queens or workers, and female larvae that received large quantities of royal jelly will result in a queen. Male bees are called drones.
Queen
Everything that happens in and near the colony is for the queen. Bees fly out to forage, but if kept away from the hive and the queen, they will die. The queen is essential to the entire colony. Without her, the rest of the colony would cease to exist. The queen should be evaluated by the beekeeper on each visit to the hive.
In a bee colony, there is only one queen, but it is estimated that in up to 20 percent of managed hives, there may be two or more queens. She comes into her “royal” duties soon after hatching. When a queen lays eggs inside the cells of the hive, the nutrient royal jelly is placed in each cell. If a queen bee is desired, chosen larvae will receive larger quantities of royal jelly as their only food source for the first four days of growth. This rapid, early feeding triggers the development of a queen, including the fully developed ovaries needed to lay eggs. As they begin to hatch, those that have been fed the larger quantity of royal jelly and become queens will attack the cells of impending competitors. If more than one queen hatches at the same time, there will be a fight to the death.
One way to distinguish the queen from other bees is by her size. A queen is about 2 to 3 centimeters in length and is the largest bee in the colony. Some queens perform better than others. Determining if your queen is better than another queen is fairly easy: It is all about how productive the hive is. A hive can produce a lot of wax and honey and prepare a large brood for the new season, or it can produce little to none and produce small broods or all drones.
The queen has two important jobs: laying eggs and secreting “queen substance.” She excretes pheromones that give direction to the rest of the hive. These pheromones draw other bees to her as well as stimulate brood rearing, foraging, and comb building; spur worker bees to rear more female eggs as workers; repress the growth of the ovaries; and stabilize swarms. The “queen substances” that she secretes comprise a variety of different pheromonal scents and do an array of important jobs.
One of the most crucial pheromones the queen secretes is called the queen’s mandibular pheromone, or QMP. It regulates social behavior in the hive and affects hive maintenance, swarming, and mating. Queen retinue pheromone, or QRP, is another important queen substance. It controls how other bees respond to the queen, plus it helps drones find a queen while in flight 200 feet away.
Inside the queen bee’s abdomen are two groups of tubes with which she lays her eggs. Each group is known as an ovary. Each tube produces eggs. She lays more than 1,500 eggs per day in intervals of 30 to 45 seconds. As she travels from cell to cell inside the hive laying her eggs, the worker bees will take care of her every need. They do everything that her size renders her incapable of doing for herself, such as feeding her, combing her, and disposing of her waste. She will start laying eggs in the center of the hive and work her way in a zig-zag pattern, laying eggs in the cells that the worker bees have prepared.
While the queen does have a stinger, she seldom uses it. Her stinger is used primarily for killing rivals. At times, a queen from another hive will become disoriented and enter a strange hive. She may also use her stinger in an act of supercedure (removing an older queen from her colony).
Queens usually live two to three years. They can become a drone layer and produce unfertilized eggs that become drones. When the queen is ready to mate, she will take short flights around the hive, then mate with 20 or more drones. Her compound eyes have fewer eye cells than the workers or drones because the queen is not required to carry out many of the mundane hive chores. The queen is the only female bee with fully developed ovaries, which makes her able to lay fertilized eggs. Many beekeepers will kill and replace the queen every two years to keep the hive active and productive.
Replacing the queen is called requeening. Simply go online or pick up the phone, and you can buy a new queen from a mail order company. She will arrive in the mail in a shipping cage containing sugar candy. However, it is a good idea to let someone at your local post office know that you will be expecting a shipment. Spray the new queen and her box with a sugar syrup, then take a small nail and remove the cork from the end of the queen cage containing sugar candy. Place the queen’s cage on the hive’s bottom board, over the top bars, or between two frames. Be sure the screen is facing toward the bees so they can feed the queen during the introduction. By the time the worker bees eat through the sugar candy and release the queen, they will have become accustomed to her pheromones and will accept her into the colony.
Worker
Worker bees are female and make up the majority of the hive. They have underdeveloped ovaries and cannot lay fertile eggs. Worker bees can lay eggs in the absence of a queen, but the eggs will become drones. Workers do all of the foraging, brood rearing, honey producing, and other work for the hive. A worker bee’s job changes as they mature. They live about six weeks during the most productive parts of the year but live longer during the winter months, when the hive is dormant.
When first hatched, a worker bee will perform “housework” inside the hive. Her first task is to clean the cell from which she was hatched. She also will clean other cells and prepare them for an egg. Worker bees remove dead bees and diseased larvae from the hive and take the carcasses as far away from the hive as possible. On occasion, mice and other small animal intruders will enter the hive, where the bees will sting it to death. Because a mouse is too big for bees to carry out of the hive, workers will cover it with a substance called propolis — a type of bee resin or glue.
Nurse bees
A nurse bee checks larvae about 1,500 times a day to feed and care for their needs. They feed each larva a mixture of pollen, honey, and royal jelly. At seven to 10 days, the worker bees will begin to attend to the queen. They feed and groom her, remove her waste, and assist with egg-laying. When the worker bees are 12 to 18 day old, they will begin to oversee the nectar that the foraging bees bring back to the hive. They take the nectar and add an enzyme to it as they deposit it in designated cells. Once a worker bee is past 12 days old, until about 18 days old, she will also take turns fanning the nectar to expedite the evaporation process and cure the honey. It is important to maintain a perfect temperature in the hive to achieve the best honey and allow for the healthy development of the brood. The workers will line the hive entrance and fan feverishly to push air into the hive and, with other workers fanning inside the hive, will drive the air further into its depths. The bees outside the hive also serve another purpose: Under the end of their abdomen is the Nasonov gland. This gland secretes a sweet scent into the air. It is intoxicating to other bees and serves as a welcome home for the foragers.
Guarding the hive
A small portion of bees are specialized in guarding the hive. They inspect all bees that enter the hive and are like CIA agents, constantly guarding the queen and the residents of their hive. If they find that a bee is foreign, they will release an alarm pheromone to the rest of the colony, and the troops will rally to stave off the invader. If an invader is loaded with pollen, the guard bees are less likely to mount an assault.
Worker bees can be divided into two varieties: summer and winter. Both are similar, but winter bees have several clusters of fat cells in their abdomen. This is due to the increased amount of pollen that winter bees consume in preparation for the season. Winter bees can live up to six months throughout the cold season.
Specialist and generalist workers
Worker bees can be divided into two other categories: specialist and generalist. Specialist bees have specialized their pollen preferences to specific flowers. When a bee specializes its pollen collection in this way, it emerges from the hive at the same time that the plant begins to flower. Squash and sunflowers are two plants that use the services of specialist bees for their pollination and survival. Squash plants open their flowers early in the morning and, simultaneously, the bees that specialize in this plant’s flower leave the hive in search of the plant’s pollen.
Although specialist bees specialize in particular flower species, generalist bees do not. Generalists visit a variety of plants and flowers when foraging for pollen. They also have longer lives and work seasons because their food sources are more varied throughout the year.
Drone
Any egg that the queen lays will hatch. Unfertilized eggs hatch and become male bees — drones — and have specific duties. Their main purpose is to mate with queens in midair. They fly strongly and quickly, despite their larger size, and will chase a queen several feet in the air to mate, after which he will die. Drones have the misfortune of being expendable should the hive run low on food. For example, if the winter runs long and food in the hive begins to run short, the colony will force out the drones. They can also be devoured before they ever hatch. As workers perform their daily nursery chores, if it becomes apparent that there are more drones than necessary, then the attending workers may destroy the unhatched drones.
Drones are produced in the spring when the hive is strong. The queen will lay drone eggs into cells that worker bees have made larger. They also protrude farther out of the cell than workers and must have a protective wax covering built over them. When the time comes for the drones to emerge from their cells, they must rely on their sisters to chew away the wax cap.
Drones are larger than worker bees and wider than the queen. The drone’s compound eyes are large and wrap around its entire head. Drones get a bad rap because they simply eat and mate, have no pollen sacks, and cannot assist in hive duties, but in fact are vital to the survival of the species because they carry a crucial half of the bee’s chromosomes. They also discourage inbreeding, in turn strengthening their hive.
A colony can have up to 500 drones. During swarming season, a colony may find itself without adult drones. If the colony is strong, there will be a stronger population of drones. Once winter arrives, most drones are removed from the hive or neglected until they die. According to beekeeping expert and author Howland Blackiston, there are no drones in hives all winter. Once the weather gets cooler and the mating season comes to a close, the workers do not want the drones around because of their need for food during the winter months. Although it may seem harsh by human standards, the drones are then systematically expelled from the hive. This is a death sentence because the honey bee, regardless of the caste, cannot survive without the colony.
Life Cycle
The life cycle of a bee is what entomologists call a complete metamorphosis. This means that the cycle begins with an egg, develops into a larva, then a pupa, then emerges as an adult — all in the span of about 21 days. All bees remain in the egg stage approximately three days. The chart below shows the different birth cycles of the queen, worker, and drone. To learn about the life cycle of a honey bee, see Appendix B.
|
Stages |
Egg |
Larva |
Pupa |
Adult (hatching) |
|
Queen |
3 days |
8 days; cell is capped at 7.5 days |
5 days |
Hatch on day 16 |
|
Worker |
3 days |
9 days; cell is capped at 9 days |
9 days |
Hatch on day 21 |
|
Drone |
3 days |
9 days; cell is capped at 10 days |
12 days |
Hatch on day 24 |
Egg
The cycle begins as soon as the queen lays an egg. The eggs of the hive are called the brood. An egg is laid in each, of the cleaned and expertly prepared cells after the queen’s personal inspection. The cells are of different sizes, and the size determines the egg she will place inside. Drone eggs are placed in larger cells and workers in smaller cells. She places the eggs standing in the center of the cell. The egg remains in this form for three days and hatches into a larva.
Larva
The larvae look like pieces of white rice. They eat, grow, and shed their skin multiple times before becoming a pupa. The worker bees on nurse duty will feed the larvae royal jelly at first, eventually switching to a mixture of pollen and nectar. When the larva has grown to 1,500 times its original size, the workers will seal the larva in the cell with a wax cap. At this point, the larva will spin a cocoon around its body.
Pupa
The larva is a pupa once the cap is placed on the cell and the cocoon is safely around the body. This is when the shape begins to form: The eyes begin to take shape and legs form; the wings take shape and colorization begins; and finally, the small hairs that cover the body are evident. At the end of the pupa cycle, the now-mature queen or worker bee will chew through the wax cap and emerge ready to work. The worker bees on nurse duty will help the drone chew through the wax cap.
The Beekeeper Buzz
“New beekeepers always have scores of questions,” said beekeeper Charles Parton. “One of the most frequently asked questions is how they can identify eggs. Bee eggs or larvae resemble tiny, white grains of rice. The best way to view the eggs is by looking at the frame with the sun at your back. Older frames, however, make the eggs easier to detect because they are usually darker.”
Communication
The way bees communicate is one of the great mysteries of nature. There are several theories as to how and why bees communicate. Years of research prove that bees communicate to let others in their hive know where food is and where drones congregate for mating purposes.
Dance
The dance that bees use to communicate is called the “waggle,” which usually consists of a small figure-eight motion. The bees actually perform two types of dances, depending on the location of the harvest. One dance is for a close field of pollen and the other for a field farther away. The inside of the hive is extremely dark, thus bees must communicate using non-visual techniques. The larger and more intricate the dance, the farther away the field and the more difficult it is to reach.
Pheromones
Pheromones are used in the odor plume theory. According to Adrian Wenner, bee researcher and proponent of the theory, the bees’ dance does little to direct bees, but instead it is pheromones, secreted by the workers, that tell others where to find the nectar. Each bee uses pheromones to communicate to each other differently. The queen’s pheromones tell the other bees that she is present and what work they should do. Her scent attracts drones for mating and controls the drone population inside the hive. Worker bees emit their pheromone fragrance at the hive entrance to guide foraging bees back. They also have an alarm pheromone that triggers the rest of the colony to take protective action if the hive is in danger. Even bees in the larva and pupa stages emit a fragrance that tells the worker nurse bees their age and feeding needs.
A bee’s gland is an important part of how they communicate. When a bee raises its abdomen and points the tip down, it is able to expose the Nasonov gland. Once the gland is exposed, small puffs of the Nasonov pheromone are released. The scent is wafted farther out when the bees beat their wings. This is called “scenting” or “fanning” and is only done by worker bees. The Nasonov gland pheromone tells lost and foraging bees how to get home, and it keeps swarming colonies together as they search out a new home.
Case Study: Getting started is never easy
Ilse Ackermann
Beekeeper in California
During my first year of beekeeping, I probably experienced every problem imaginable.
Two of my most prevalent problems were ants and robbing.
My solution for combating ants was to build low tables (about knee-high) to place my hives on; then, I put the table legs in buckets of vegetable oil. This prevents the ants from marching up to the hives. Still, I have to constantly monitor plant growth around the hives because one blade of grass can be a bridge for the ants.
Robbing was also a problem early on probably because there was a wild hive close to my hives. Bees can become agitated when they are being robbed. What I did to stop that was throw a damp sheet over the hives; my bees were able to get in, but the sheet stopped the robbers.
It is vital that new beekeepers be able to identify their eggs. The best way to do this is by holding the frame up with the sun over your shoulder. The eggs will be difficult to spot at first because they are minuscule, but the key is to look for white/translucent circles.
Spring is generally the best time of year to begin beekeeping. This way, the bees have spring, summer, and fall to build up their food supplies to survive the winter. But do not expect honey that first summer. Your colony is growing, and they will need all the honey they do make in that first season for food during the winter.
It is important to always leave a little honey in the hive; never take it all. The bees need some of it to survive on during the winter months. I usually leave about a super full of honey, but here in California, that is generous. I do not give my bees sugar water or artificial food.
It is not always easy to tell which of the capped cells have honey and which have brood. One way to distinguish the two is by color. The capped honey cells will look like the color of honey and are scattered around the outer edges, while the brood is usually darker and will appear in the middle/bottom of frames.
When it comes to tools, I prefer a smoker, a hive tool, bee brush, and a veil and gloves. A bee repellent such as Bee Gone will come in handy when emptying out a super to retrieve honey.
The best way to guard against pest and disease is to be vigilant. Be a responsible beekeeper, take note of everything that affects your colony, and be prepared to nip problems in the bud as soon as they arise.
Bee stings are inevitable, but I do not like stings, so I always wear gear. Last year, my husband helped me with my hives, and he was not wearing a suit. We had to go to the emergency room with 25 stings. I am not allergic, but I keep an EpiPen® on hand at all times in case someone else is.
Hive Life
The phrase “busy as a bee” is an apt description. Almost all the work is done by the worker bees, but even the drones have specific duties. The first activity the bees are introduced to in the hive is comb building. Workers begin to secrete wax chips from glands on the underside of the abdomen. The chips come out in small, white, sheet-like secretions. Beginning beekeepers might mistake the production of wax as a disease when they see the small, white flakes. The comb is the entire group of cells that the bees use to store their honey, pollen, nectar, and water. It is also used to hold their young as they metamorphose from egg, pupa, and larva to finally emerge as an adult bee.
In the winter months, bees will cluster together in a tight ball with the queen at the center. The tighter the cluster, the more body heat is retained and the better the chances are of the colony surviving the winter. Conserving body heat also saves on the amount of food eaten throughout the winter. At the beginning of the year, the queen will begin to lay eggs in the center of the hive. This is a hard time for bees because brood production requires food that is often at a dangerously low supply. In early spring, there are lots of new broods, but room in the hive is scarce. This is usually when swarming takes place. In late summer, the bees become insistent upon storing honey, pollen, water, and their own mixtures of bee food. Bees lay their eggs under these stored foods as insulation, and over the winter months they slowly consume them, moving up the hive as they do.
To keep the hive running efficiently, a number of chores must be done constantly. A worker bee will use the pheromone scents from the queen and the area around her to instinctively know what to do, and in what order. Housekeeping is an important part of hive life. Bees constantly clean their cells and use a special substance called propolis as a disinfectant. They spread a thin layer throughout the hive but also use it in larger quantities to seal cracks and large holes in the hive, as well as to cover dead animals and other potential hive threats. Propolis is another valuable substance made by bees because it is soft and pliable but dries to a hard substance that is impossible to remove completely.
All undertaking chores are performed by the workers and include disposal of dead colony members and diseased brood. They will also mummify dead mice, shrews, and anything that is too heavy to pick up and carry out of the hive. Many of the young worker bees take on the chores of nursemaid. These young nurses take care of the brood. Tending to the queen is another significant part of hive life. The queen gets her own royal court to feed her and help dispose of her waste. Some of these workers in the royal court also play the part of an OB-GYN nurse and encourage the queen while she is laying eggs.
Foraging is another hive “must-do.” This task is saved for the older, more mature workers. Their first foray out of the hive consists of hovering near the entrance and darting about. They circle the hive in order to commit the location to memory. They also take special notice of landmarks to later help them navigate their way home. Foraging is dangerous for many reasons. Staying out after dusk can disorientate the bees so they cannot find their way back to the hive, and if the temperature drops too low, they can die before ever returning home. Other dangers come from birds and other insect; plus, the long flights are tiring and full of obstacles. Older workers that have been foraging for a few days will be darker and have tattered wings.
Fanning is another activity that happens throughout the hive. When standing near the hive during this activity, it sounds similar to a mini jet revving its engines. Bees fan their wings rapidly to regulate the temperature inside the hive and to help evaporate the water in the honey. Bees also fan to release the pheromone from their Nasonov gland, which tells returning foragers they are home, as previously mentioned.
Mating
Honey bee queens are not monogamous. In fact, they mate with dozens of drones at a time and preserve the sperm for the remainder of their lives. Research shows that this conduct results in a heritably assorted brood, which has been shown to be more productive and resilient than their genetically homogeneous insect cousins. A queen can be killed by her colony if she is perceived to have not mated with as many drones as a competing queen. Queens that mate with multiple drones have pheromones with a more calming scent, which makes them better able to control the colony.
Honey bees mate with drones from other colonies in mid-flight to prevent inbreeding. When a new queen reaches a certain age, then sometime soon past the 23rd day, she will wait for a warm, sunny day and set out to a drone congregation area — an area usually outside of small trees that have dense leaves. The honey bee will mate repeatedly here. If the congregation is heavy, she may return for consecutive days to become fully mated, but her mating is typically done on her maiden flight. The queen stores the sperm in a spermatheca and will disperse it throughout her life. In queen bees, the spermatheca is an important part of the female reproductive system: It is the storage place for the sperm and is where fertilization takes place. Beekeepers can look at the spermatheca and tell if sperm has been received.
It is important to the colonies’ survival that the queen find a day suitable to take the mating flight. Should it rain for several days and the queen not find a day to leave, she will never be fertile. Unfertilized queens only lay drones, in essence killing the colony because they cannot lay fertilized females to raise as their replacements.
Because honey bees always mate mid-air — away from the nest and high enough off the ground to be out of sight — most beekeepers know little about the mating process. What we do know is that on days with good weather, drone bees leave the nest and fly to certain areas, where they congregate in the air to wait for queen bees. When a queen flies into the area, the drones will chase her and, if successful, many of them will mate with her. Her mating flight is a very vulnerable period because of danger from predators and changes in weather conditions. So a special area nearby, where she can mate with enough drones in as short a time as possible, increases her chances of survival. It is very important that drones from many different colonies congregate together to help ensure a varied genetic mix for the queen to avoid inbreeding.
Foraging
We have already discussed worker bees and the fact that they have many jobs. One of these jobs is to forage, which is when a worker bee leaves the hive in search of food, water, and other necessities. Workers do not begin foraging until their life is half over. Worker bees begin foraging by facing the hive and darting around it in what looks to be a haphazard fashion. This movement is actually the technique the workers use to memorize the look and smell of the hive. After their initial “dart and dive” movement, they will begin to orbit the hive in circles that get larger with each flight pattern.
Bees have been dependent on flowers for millions of years, and plants have perfected their features to attract all kinds of insects that transport their pollen to other plants. Social bees change flower species when collecting pollen, while a solitary bee prefers a specific species. The bees that visit one specific species are known as “monolectic;” they search for plants that bloom at a certain time of year. “Oligolectic” bees travel to a few different varieties and are most likely found in temperate regions. Bees that travel to a variety of flowers are “polylectic.”
Foraging bees have to determine how far they should travel for their food source. If a large source is far away, the bee would use too much energy. Bees typically fly as far as necessary for food, but when the weather and temperature cooperate, a bee can visit up to 40 plants per minute. Optimal temperatures are between 60 and 89°F. Mature bees have been known to travel as far as eight miles, but a typical search is about two to three miles from the hive. Bee may make as many as five to 15 trips a day, while a water collector can make more than a hundred.
The period when bees forage and gather nectar for the colony is called “nectar flow.” This is a time when there is so much nectar production that the bees have more than the colony’s immediate needs. This is converted into honey and stored in combs.
When foraging bees return, they are greeted by house bees that relieve them of their nectar and deposit it in the cells that have been prepared. Pollen, nectar, water, and eggs all have specific cells. When the nectar is deposited into the cells, the house bees add a special enzyme that causes the nectar to turn into honey. After the enzyme is added, the workers take turns fanning the cells to evaporate water and accelerate the honey-ripening process. Foraging bees in a mature hive will return at a rate of one per second or greater.
Swarming
Swarming is referred to as the division between beehives, which is done in a natural manner. These swarms usually result when a honey bee colony grows too large. As the hive continues to grow, and the number of worker bees exceeds the capacity of the hive, the bees in the colony will raise another queen bee, which will travel to a new location and form a new hive with about half of the workers and drone bees from the original hive.
Although overcrowding is typically the reason why swarming occurs, an older queen and a mild winter may also add to the swarming impulse. A swarm generally includes the old queen and about 50 percent of the worker bees in the hive, said Lynda Cook Rizzardi, president of the Knox County Tennessee Beekeepers Association. The worker bees from the swarming hive will follow the queen’s scent and swarm. Each hive of bees has only one queen at a time. If the queen happens to leave or be pushed from the hive, worker bees from her hive will follow her scent and go wherever their queen mother goes, Cook Rizzardi said.
Bee populations tend to increase in late spring and early summer. At the beginning of the growing season, when there is plenty of food available and a large brood, the colony can become overpopulated and begin to swarm to find a place to live. A swarm may comprise 1,500 to 30,000 bees, including workers, drones, and a queen. Swarming is a part of the yearly life cycle of a honey bee colony and allows the colony to reproduce itself.
The main reason bees look for a new home is to secure the survival of the original colony. The bees must first prepare large queen cells. This is done by first preparing large queen cells to house a new queen. Several workers will stop their foraging and hive duties to search for adequate living conditions. This is called scouting. The existing queen, workers, and several drones will all leave the hive together. The bees that are left behind conduct business as usual and wait for the queen to emerge.
The bees that have flown from the hive will land close by and wait for the scouting bees to return. The scouts will find trees, bushes, or other convenient locations for a new home. Once they find a suitable location, they perform the communication dance to tell the other bees their location. Bees seldom build their combs in the open, but if there are no other means to protect their combs, they will build wherever they can. However, they prefer a hollow tree, an empty building, or the underside of a porch. The queen will begin to lay eggs, and the workers and drones will begin foraging and housekeeping duties.
A large swarm of bees can be frightening, but honey bees only defend themselves around their nest, their young, and their food supply. A swarm will not be on the defense unless they are provoked. As long as their combs are not interfering with human activity, they should be left alone. If the bees do find their way into a home, they can be removed or, if absolutely necessary, killed. In order to prevent a future swarm, the entry space should be contained with caulk or insulation.
It is not easy to determine if bees are beginning to swarm. New beekeepers often confuse bees that are simply cooling off with those that are about to swarm. It is an easy mistake; the temperature inside a hive can be unbearable, depending on the outside temperature. As an early beekeeping expert of the 1700s, Francis Huber concluded that hives could reach temperatures up to 93°F in January. Other beekeeping experts observed in the 1800s that temperatures inside the hives could get as hot as 105.4°, as recorded by zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich.
In situations of intense heat, as previously described, huge clusters of bees will gather at the opening to the hive, sometimes for days, trying to escape the heat. They will often swirl their wings in an effort to cool the hive, which needs to remain at a temperature in the mid-90s to maintain a functional hive. That is the difference between swarming bees and bees just trying to cool off: Swarming bees will leave quickly; cooling bees will stay, or at least until the temperature inside the hive is more manageable. To help with the cooling, make sure there is adequate ventilation and water.
Bees may also gather at the hive opening and engage in a strange rocking movement. Believe it or not, the rocking motion is actually the bee’s way of scrubbing and polishing the hive entrance and surface.
A swarm can sometimes be seen flying through the air like a big ball. This is an exceptional sight on a summer’s day, said beekeeper Lynda Cook Rizzardi. Once the cluster of honey bees find a limb, hollow tree, empty hive body, or even an opening in a house, the bees will take up residence and begin making honeycombs and honey. Make sure the bees have perched some place accessible. Sometimes the bees will swarm in the uppermost branches of a tree or deep inside a bush. Though these situations make them more difficult to capture, it can be done. If possible, enlist the help of a family member or an adventurous friend. Try bribing them with a pot of delicious, fresh honey or new beeswax candles.
The next step is to gather the equipment. Get an empty super, or a large box and some honey. Make sure the super is large enough to accommodate the swarm. Wear a bee suit veil and gloves. Other supplies include a pair of pruning shears, a lopper, and a ladder, depending on where the swarm has clustered.
Take the super or box and place it directly under the hanging swarm. Remember that the entire swarm is clustered around the queen. It is important to capture the queen; if not, part of the swarm might die without her.
If the drop from where they are hanging into the box is a short one, just cut off the limb or whatever the cluster is hanging from. If that is not an option, shake it. Most of the bees will fall into the box and remain there once they find out there is honey in it. Be warned that shaking the cluster of swarming bees could mean losing the queen.
Once the majority of the swarm is in the super, close it and store in a cool, shady spot until dusk or early evening. Dump the bees into the hive or onto a white sheet in front of the hive. Another solution is to place the super into the hive.
Swarming, however, is not always a good thing. There are times when it is best to discourage swarming, especially if the hive is small and the larger half of the bees will be leaving. Fortunately, there are simple ways to discourage swarming.
One way to discourage swarming is to split the hive. Set up another brood box and honey super. Take four frames of brood (loaded with bees, but not the queen) and put them in the middle of the brood box along with six empty frames, three on either side. Make sure one or two frames have existing queen cells. Add two honeyed frames (also loaded with bees) in the middle of the new super, along with eight empty frames, four on either side. Before putting the top lid on, take two or three frames from your original hive and gently brush the bees into your new hive. Some of the bees will eventually return to the original hive, but most will stay. At this time, you may want to queen the hive, or you can wait for nature to take its course and let the new colony create its own queen. If you are going to queen the hive on your own, follow these steps:
1. Order a new queen from a mail order company, which will arrive in a shipping cage with sugar candy.
2. Find the old queen in your hive. Remove and destroy her.
3. Spray the new queen and the box she came in with the sugar syrup.
4. Use a nail to remove the end of the queen’s cage.
5. Place the queen’s cage on the bottom board of your hive. You can also place this on top of the hive’s bars or between two of the hive frames.
6. Make sure the screen opens toward the bees so they can feed the queen (they will eat the sugar candy that came with the queen).
7. Usually, by the time the sugar candy spray is gone, the queen has been accepted by the other bees in the hive.
Species
Only members of the genus Apis are true honey bees, although other genus members are considered honey bees. With the exception of the north and south polar regions, honey bees exist all over the world. They are capable of surviving weather extremes. More than 44 breeds of honey bees have been identified, but only a few are desirable for beekeeping. Some bees have poor swarming habits; others are excessively aggressive while protecting the hive; and some do not have adequate food storage characteristics.
Italian (Apis mellifera ligustica)
Italian honey bees are black or very dark brown with yellow stripes, except for the drones of the species, which are mostly yellow. The queens are also a gold color, but a bit more striking. They tend to be smaller, with shorter hair than that of some of their darker black or dark brown cousins. This subspecies of honey bee is better suited for warmer climates, as they are used to the moderate winters and prolonged summers.
This species produces young all year long, with larger broods in summer and warm climates. The constant brood-producing is a desirable beekeeping trait. Italian honey bees are also popular with beekeepers because of their moderate temperament when it comes to beekeeping maintenance. Other good characteristics are their tendency to produce a lot of honey, but they are spare with propolis. The large broods work great for beekeepers who also use their bees to pollinate crops.
This breed is the most widely distributed of all the honey bees, but some of the traits that make them so desirable also make them undesirable. The large broods are known to consume much more food during the winter months, and they do not have good clustering skills. This causes them to leave small gaps between their bodies all winter, and this results in a loss of body heat. This is another reason extra food is consumed in the winter. All of this adds up to the possibility that a whole colony could be wiped out during a cold spell.
Italians honey bees are excellent housekeepers, and some scientists believe that this is a big factor in why the bees have a high tolerance for some diseases and pests.
Caucasian (Apis mellifera caucasica)
Caucasians bees are dark gray with light gray stripes. They are mild-tempered, easy to work with, and raise strong colonies that reach full strength in the mid-summer months.
These bees are not suited for areas that reach full nectar flow in spring, as Caucasian bees are prone to Nosema disease and pests. They use excessive propolis, making hive opening and closing difficult; they also swarm late in spring, if at all, and build slowly. Caucasian bees are known to rob and drift in spring and fall, when nectar flow is slow.
Of all the bee species, Caucasians have the longest tongues. This makes them valuable in the pollination process. They will also forage in less-than-perfect temperatures, which is a favorable trait because it keeps the hive happy and active in cold, wet climates. Holistic and natural health care providers are fond of Caucasian bees because of their high propolis production.
Carniolan (Apis mellifera carnica)
Carniolan bees are dark gray, even black, with gray stripes. Originating in Slovenia, these bees are used to cold winters and fast-changing weather conditions. They are quick to build and swarm in the summer, but slow down considerably in the winter months. Carniolans are the most mild-tempered and gentle bees of all.
The Carniolans tolerate all beekeeping maintenance, making them the second-most popular bee in beekeeping. They fight pests, yet maintain a gentle nature around beekeepers. They keep their population at the same level as their food supply, and they are masters at regulating egg production with seasonal changes.
This species is resistant to many brood diseases and to certain pests. They forage in early morning and late evening, use small amounts of propolis, and are prone to swarming.
Western European (Apis mellifera)
Western European bees are the newest thing in beekeeping. They resemble the Carniolan honey bees, are gentle and disease-resistant, and are high producers. They are gaining favor in the beekeeping industry primarily because of one important characteristic — mite resistance.
They use less propolis than typical Italian honey bees and show exceptional winter hardiness, hibernating in small clusters. They produce a high nectar haul per bee, build queen cells throughout the brood season, and may have a higher tendency to swarm.
African (Apis mellifera scutellata)
Africanized, or African, honey bees (AHB) are not commercially available and are not considered useful for beekeeping as a hobby. Regardless of what you may read in the papers, Africanized honey bees do not fly around in angry swarms and randomly attack people. With a wingspan that is usually less than 9 millimeters, however, these honey bees are usually very aggressive, and they become highly defensive when protecting their home. The irony in that, however, lies in the fact that their home can be just about anywhere. They tend to favor small areas. Some common nesting spots include water meter boxes, utility poles, house eaves, old tires, holes in the ground, and tree limbs; the list is almost endless.
The main problem with the Africanized honey bee is its extreme protectiveness of the hive and brood. Their area of protectiveness is ten times larger than the European honey bee, ranging up to 40 yards away from their nest. Commonly referred to as “the killer bees,” once disturbed, these bees are relentless and will chase an intruder as far as a quarter of a mile before giving up and going home. A joke among beekeepers is they are well-named, because an Apis mellifera scutellata will definitely cause you to “scoot-a-lotta” — and fast.
African honey bees are hardy and very productive honey-makers, but their home bears a similar climate to South America, which is another reason why they are not very useful for beekeeping. They were imported from Africa to Brazil in 1956 for cross-breeding with the European honey bees that were not faring well in the tropics. The breeders thought the blending would produce a more temperate African honey bee, but they did not get the results they were looking for; the bees still maintained their aggressive behavior. This may have happened sooner or later, but sooner it was. This new hybrid escaped from Brazil in 1957 and began its migration up to North America to eventually cross over the Texas border in 1990. Since then, the African honey bees have been moving steadily across the southern United States, from California to Florida. It is too late to stop their migration; however, researchers are hopeful they will find a way to breed the aggressiveness out of the African honey bee.
Other honey bees
Buckfast
Buckfast bees were named for their birthplace, Buckfast Abbey, England, where renowned apiarist Brother Adam, a Benedictine Monk, developed the strain. The Buckfast bee is a hybrid bred to be genetically resistant to tracheal mites. Though Buckfast bees excel at brood rearing, they are prone to robbing and absconding with honey.
Starline
The Starline bee is an Italian hybrid and is sometimes referred to as the clover bee. It is a strain of the Italian bee and is the only Italian strain commercially available. They are mildly aggressive but highly productive in pollination. They do not winter well because of overcrowding and must be requeened annually.
Midnight
The midnight bee is a hybrid of the Caucasian and Carniolan. They are mildly aggressive and use tons of propolis, but winter extremely well in the northern United States.
