Honey Bee Biology
![Picture](/uploads/5/3/5/7/53578375/903975933.gif?526)
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Apidae
Genus: Apis
Western Honey Bee: Apis mellifera
Honey Bees: Body divided into three segments: Head, Thorax, and Abdomen. Life cycle: eggs are laid, and hatch into white larva. The adult worker bees feed the larva until they pupate and hatch into an adult bee. It takes 3-4 days to hatch and 9 days to be fully grown and emerge from the cell into the hive. [4]
Honey bee's diet consists of nectar and pollen from flowers. Worker bees collect these substances and bring them back to the hive to be eaten over winter months when flowers aren't as available.
The Hive: Natural hives are usually hollow trees or rock cavities. Multiple honey combs are built by the worker been in a parallel fashion with equal bee space in between. Hives are generally forty five liters in volume and the height of those hives range from three to 16 feet off the ground. Honey bees are social insects. There is a division of labor within the hive and very interesting communication characteristics that take place. [4]
Worker Bee: Worker bees are sexually immature females (the queen is the only sexually mature female). Worker bees carry out the tasks around the hive such as feeding, cleaning, organizing, building, foraging, managing temperatures, and managing other bees and their jobs. Worker bees make up the majority of the population of the hive. [4]
Drones: drones are the bees responsible for fertilizing queens. It is still unclear as to how these events happen, but drone mating sites have been observed by scientists where somehow queens from other hives and drones know to meet up once a year for fertilization. Those drones return to hive and are not warmly welcomed by the workers in certain instances. When food storage is getting low and drones are still around eating, workers will grab them and throw them out of the hive not allowing them to eat because they are no longer contributing to the hive. [4]
Queen: the queen is the only sexually mature female in the hive. She is distinguishable by her large abdomen. Multiple queen eggs are laid when the original hive divides to ensure a higher rate of success. The queen that hatches first immediately explores the hive for other queen cells. . Basically the last queen alive is the strongest one and seen as the best fit to provide her services for the hive. Most of the time the first queen goes around to other queen cells and stings them before they hatch, but in some cases two queens are out in the hive and must fight to prove their worth as the brood mother. [4]
Waggle Dance: The waggle dance is performed by worker bees when they need to communicate with others on where a food source is at when that source is above 150 meters away from the hive. The bee walks in a straight line while shaking its body back and forth, then turns to the left in a circle to return to the starting point of the dance. It repeats that straight line waggle, then turns to the right in a circle to the starting point which completes the full figure-eight pattern. During the straight line, waggle portion of the dance the bee makes buzzing sound from wingbeats at a low frequency of 250 to 300 hertz. This buzzing sound indicates the distance of the food source. One can think of this sound as the tempo to the dance, the shorter the waggle portion of the dance is, the shorter the distance to the food source is, as well as longer dance equals longer distance. [5]
The direction of the food source is a bit more complicated than the distance. The direction of the food is related to the position of the sun in relation to the hive and the food source. The combs of a bee hive are vertically oriented in the hive and the comb is the dance floor. If the food source is in a direct line with the sun, the worker bee will perform the straight line portion of the waggle dance traveling exactly vertical on the comb in an upwards direction. If the food is in the opposite direction of the sun, the bee will dance the straight line portion of the dance in a downwards vertical manor. If the food source is 50 degrees to the left of the sun, the bee will perform the straight line "waggle run" portion of the dance 50 degrees left of vertical. [5]
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Apidae
Genus: Apis
Western Honey Bee: Apis mellifera
Honey Bees: Body divided into three segments: Head, Thorax, and Abdomen. Life cycle: eggs are laid, and hatch into white larva. The adult worker bees feed the larva until they pupate and hatch into an adult bee. It takes 3-4 days to hatch and 9 days to be fully grown and emerge from the cell into the hive. [4]
Honey bee's diet consists of nectar and pollen from flowers. Worker bees collect these substances and bring them back to the hive to be eaten over winter months when flowers aren't as available.
The Hive: Natural hives are usually hollow trees or rock cavities. Multiple honey combs are built by the worker been in a parallel fashion with equal bee space in between. Hives are generally forty five liters in volume and the height of those hives range from three to 16 feet off the ground. Honey bees are social insects. There is a division of labor within the hive and very interesting communication characteristics that take place. [4]
Worker Bee: Worker bees are sexually immature females (the queen is the only sexually mature female). Worker bees carry out the tasks around the hive such as feeding, cleaning, organizing, building, foraging, managing temperatures, and managing other bees and their jobs. Worker bees make up the majority of the population of the hive. [4]
Drones: drones are the bees responsible for fertilizing queens. It is still unclear as to how these events happen, but drone mating sites have been observed by scientists where somehow queens from other hives and drones know to meet up once a year for fertilization. Those drones return to hive and are not warmly welcomed by the workers in certain instances. When food storage is getting low and drones are still around eating, workers will grab them and throw them out of the hive not allowing them to eat because they are no longer contributing to the hive. [4]
Queen: the queen is the only sexually mature female in the hive. She is distinguishable by her large abdomen. Multiple queen eggs are laid when the original hive divides to ensure a higher rate of success. The queen that hatches first immediately explores the hive for other queen cells. . Basically the last queen alive is the strongest one and seen as the best fit to provide her services for the hive. Most of the time the first queen goes around to other queen cells and stings them before they hatch, but in some cases two queens are out in the hive and must fight to prove their worth as the brood mother. [4]
Waggle Dance: The waggle dance is performed by worker bees when they need to communicate with others on where a food source is at when that source is above 150 meters away from the hive. The bee walks in a straight line while shaking its body back and forth, then turns to the left in a circle to return to the starting point of the dance. It repeats that straight line waggle, then turns to the right in a circle to the starting point which completes the full figure-eight pattern. During the straight line, waggle portion of the dance the bee makes buzzing sound from wingbeats at a low frequency of 250 to 300 hertz. This buzzing sound indicates the distance of the food source. One can think of this sound as the tempo to the dance, the shorter the waggle portion of the dance is, the shorter the distance to the food source is, as well as longer dance equals longer distance. [5]
The direction of the food source is a bit more complicated than the distance. The direction of the food is related to the position of the sun in relation to the hive and the food source. The combs of a bee hive are vertically oriented in the hive and the comb is the dance floor. If the food source is in a direct line with the sun, the worker bee will perform the straight line portion of the waggle dance traveling exactly vertical on the comb in an upwards direction. If the food is in the opposite direction of the sun, the bee will dance the straight line portion of the dance in a downwards vertical manor. If the food source is 50 degrees to the left of the sun, the bee will perform the straight line "waggle run" portion of the dance 50 degrees left of vertical. [5]