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About HoneybeesHoneybees are facinating insects that we depend on more than most people might realize. Not only do they pollinate our fruits, vegetables and nuts, experts believe that honeybees are directly responsible for about 1/3 of our food supply--that's an aweful lot more food than just honey (and honey would have been enough)! With the problems honeybees are having these days (like Colony Collapse Disorder), it's more important than ever to find ways to help these valuable insects. One thing you can do is learn more about these amazing creatures and learn to love and respect them.
Honeybee 101First, let's talk about the colony of bees that live in a typical hive and what exactly goes on in there anyway. A hive can house more than 60,000 bees that are divided into three different kinds of honeybees--there are worker bees, drone bees and the queen bee. The Queen BeeThis is the most important bee of the hive. Without her, the hive wouldn't survive or even exist. There's only one queen per hive and she's the largest bee in the hive. Her job is to lay eggs--tons of eggs--up to 1,500 eggs per day! She actually can lay more eggs per day than her entire weight. The queen has a group of bees that attend to her every need and follow her around as she lays eggs. These bees are in charge of making sure her needs are fully met as she can't do anything on her own (not even feed herself). The queen bee generally lives two years, maybe more. Some beekeepers replace their queen every year since she's so vital to the hives existance. The Worker BeeThe worker bees make up the largest population of the hive. What these bees do for a job depends on their age. For the first few days, a worker bee eats. Then, they move into the the job of hive cleaning and maintenance. They remove dead workers and other invaders, etc. Another job of the worker bees is to take care of the bee larva. As a general rule of thumb, these lavre are checked on over 1,000 times per day. Some worker bees are in charge of attending to the queen to help her with her most basic needs. Other worker bees have the job of bringing nectar back to the hive while others take the nectar and turn it into honey. Another job of worker bees is that of making beeswax. Still other worker bees are in charge of the temperature control of the hive. They fan the hive with their wings to help bring fresh air into the hive. Some also guard the hive. Still other worker bees help the field bees gather pollen. It takes over 5 million visits to flowers to produce a pint of honey. The bees will go up to 3 miles from the hive in search of the precious pollen. Each trip out to gather pollen may mean visiting up to 600 flowers. A worker bee can live up to 8 months, but die in as little as 12 weeks during the busiest part of the season. The Drone BeeThe drone is the only male in the hive and they make up a very small percentage of the overall bee population of the hive. Like the queen, drones are taken care of by the worker bees. His role in the hive is mating with the queen. After he mates with the queen, the drone is torn apart and dies. Those drones that survive (don't mate), are kicked out by the worker bees at the end of the mating season. The drone really can't do much of anything besides mate. He doesn't even have a stinger to help protect the hive, so the workers boot them out to avoid having to care for them through the winter. As you can see just from the description of the different kinds of bees in a colony and their specific jobs, there's a lot more about honeybees than meets the eye! It's a facinating network of insects that do an aweful lot to help us humans get the food we need to survive.
Other information you might find helpful: Starting with Bees How to Build a Mason Bee House
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