Honey Beekeeping, and the Life Cycle of the Honey Bee
Honey Beekeeping, and the Life Cycle of the Honey Bee
Successful honey beekeeping requires a complete and full understanding of honey bee biology, especially an understanding of the life cycle of the honey bee. In fact, it could be said that beekeeping is all about understanding bee biology. The life cycle of the honey bee is an extremely fascinating process. If you're interested in learning more about honey bees, please read on.
If you look inside a beehive you will find three very distinct types of adult honey bees, the Queen honey bee, the drone honey bee and the worker honey bee. In addition will also find three immature stages collectively known as, brood. Individually the immature stages are called, the egg stage, the larva and the pupa, also known as the capped Stage.
The Queen bee and the worker bee are both female, the drone bee is the male. The sole purpose of the Queen bee is the laying of eggs and the production of chemicals, known as pheromones, that maintain colony cohesion as well as the regulation of colony reproduction. The Queen bee is completely dependent on worker bees and cannot survive on her own. Worker bees feed the Queen bee, groom the Queen bee and remove her excreted waste from the beehive. Typically there is only one Queen bee in each colony. Although, at certain times of the year they're might be an active Queen and a virgin Queen that's newly emerged.
Drone bees are larger than the Queen bee. The sole purpose of the drone is to mate with virgin Queen's and are very short-lived, living approximately one month. Only a very few drones mate with the virgin Queen and the ones that do die in the process. The drones that are unsuccessful at mating are typically driven out of the hive by the worker bees.
Without a doubt the greatest number of bees in the beehive are worker bees having anywhere from 20,000 to as many as 100,000 or possibly more per hive. Worker bees are females that haven't fully developed their reproductive organs. Besides being much smaller that the Queen bee worker bees also possess small pollen baskets on their hind legs, and glands that produce wax on their abdomens and are unable to produce the same pheromones the Queen bee produces.
The life span of the honeybee is dependent on the role the bee plays within the beehive. Queen bees, while capable of living three years, typically only live for two years. Through the winter months it's not uncommon for a worker bee to live through the entire winter, but throughout the summer months, worker bees rarely live more than 40 days. Within the beehive the duties of a worker bee are varied. Some worker bees are nurse bees to take care of the young larva, other worker bees go out to search for and and gather pollen which is then made into honey. Still other worker bees are assigned to duty capping off honeycombs, and others take care of their Queen.
The life cycle of honey bees is seasonal. The number of bees within a colony fluctuates from season to season. Through the winter months the adult worker population decreases significantly, then with the increase in daylight hours and the availability of pollen the population of the colony increases rapidly. Most colonies reach their maximum population by the end of June then begins dropping during July and August depending upon the race. Some races of honeybees grope much slower and maintain higher population levels later into the season.
Without a doubt the greater the amount of knowledge a honey beekeeper has of bee biology, the more successful they will be as beekeepers. Life Insurance Durham NC - 33 Secret Tips To Not Get RIPPED OFF Secret agent Cams: Bonding Film And Real Life How Does Cash Value In A Life Insurance Policy Really Work? Term Vs. Cash Value Life Insurance Universal Life Insurance Variable Life Insurance Variable Universal Life Insurance Cheap Life - Life Insurance for Seniors Cheaps Life Insurance Five ways to save these How Low Cost Life Insurance Compare Indiana Whole Life Insurance Advantages and Benefits Getting Cheap Life Insurance Online in Nevada Decide whether you need life insurance