![]() ![]() You won’t find them doing the “hokey pokey” or the twist. Yes, bees dance to communicate the location of good food sources. Beehive CommunicationĪs the bees carry out their various roles within the hive, they communicate with one another through a complex system of pheromones, vibrations, and dances. ![]() We use honey as a natural sweetener and in many baked goods and even beauty products. This stored food is vital to colony survival and used during the Winter for food.Ī remarkable substance, honey never spoils so we are glad to get the excess crop. The flavor and color of honey produced varies depending on the plant nectar source that was visited. Then, it is stored in those lovely honeycomb cells and capped with a layer of beeswax. These young workers take the nectar and with the help of saliva enzymes and reducing the water content – honey is made. Here it is regurgitated to house bees ( honey is not vomit!). Plant nectar is collected from millions of blooming flowers and brought to the hive. One of the most important things they do is make honey. Drones live a few months during Summer and are usually killed before Winter.Ī look inside any busy beehive will reveal thousands of workers bees going about their daily chores. This too is an important task because otherwise the new queen would be unable to lay fertilized eggs. ![]() They leave the hive to find and mate with virgin queens at special drone congregation areas. They have no work to do but they do have one special purpose. Dronesĭrones, the male bees, are a happy go lucky lot. This helps ensure colony survival until Spring. Winter bees (those produced in late Fall), live for several months as they develop special “fat bodies” that aid in longevity. They also travel great distances (for a tiny bee) from the beehive to collect food and resources needed for survival.ĭuring the Summer months, worker bees are short lived with few making it past the 6 week mark. Generally, younger adults work inside the hive and older bees go outside. The jobs they perform change in relation to the age of the bee and the needs of the colony. Inside a beehive, you will find workers busy feeding young, building beeswax honeycomb, making honey, protecting the hive and a myriad of other tasks. As the name implies, the role of worker bees is to do all the work in the hive. However, if her production lags – the workers will kill the queen and replace her with another. Queens have the capacity to live for several years. If the queen lays an unfertilized egg, this larva is male and will develop into a drone. It has the capacity to develop into a worker bee or a queen. When the queen lays a fertilized egg (from semen stored in her body), the resulting bee larva is female. Some beekeepers collect propolis from their colonies and sell it. It is a wonderful substance with many healthful benefits. Bees use propolis, a sticky resin collected from trees, to seal gaps and cracks in the hive and to strengthen the comb. If you see a dark sticky resinous substance in the hive, this may be propolis (often called “bee glue”). The presence of various colors of pollen inside the hive indicates the diverse range of flowers and plants in the surrounding environment.īy collecting and storing pollen, bees ensure the availability of protein supporting the growth and development of the brood. Vibrant yellow or orange is a common color but not the only colors found. Within the bustling hive, pollen can be found stored in wax cells or the “pollen baskets or corbiculae” of incoming foragers. Observing pollen inside a beehive is an intriguing sight that offers insight into the foraging habits and essential role of bees as pollinators. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |