The Honey Bee
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Anatomy of a honey bee
1. Two sensory antennae used for touch, smell, hearing and other senses 2. Five specialized eyes able to detect patterns and polarized light (invisible to humans) 3. Air tubes and sacs for breathing, located on the back of the thorax 4. Two pairs of transparent membranous wings 5. Mouth used to extract nectar from flowers (proboscis), make honey and build with wax 6. Front legs equipped with brushes to clean the sensory antennae 7. Middle legs that help remove pollen from the flower and store it in the hind legs 8. Hind legs holding a pollen basket; they are also used to build with wax 9. Abdomen containing the honey stomach for storing nectar, and the wax glands 10. Stinger connected to the abdomen |
Illustration by Racelle Ishak
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Inhabitants of a bee colony
There are 3 types of bees in a colony: the queen, workers and drones.
There are 3 types of bees in a colony: the queen, workers and drones.
Illustration by Racelle Ishak
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-There are up to 60,000 female workers in a colony during the flowering season.
-Workers are the smallest colony members. -They have a stinger which they use to protect the colony (a worker dies if it stings a human or a large animal). -They cannot lay eggs except when there is no queen in the colony, then they only lay male drone eggs. -They perform most of the work in the colony (cleaning, rearing, building, gathering). -They live for around 40 days in the active season and up to 6 months in winter. |
-There is only 1 queen for each colony, she is the mother of all bees in the colony.
-The queen is the largest member of the colony (around 25 mm in length). -She has a stinger but she only uses it in a fight against another queen. -She lays around 2,000 eggs every day during the flowering season (less in winter). -She mates once in her entire life (the only time she leaves the hive, a day or two after she is born). -She lives for around 4 years. |
-There are up to 500 male drones in a colony; they are shorter and wider than the queen.
-Drones do not have a stinger. -Their job is to mate with new queens. -They are only found in spring during the swarming season or in autumn if there are flowers around. -They can enter any other colony. -They cannot eat by themselves and have to rely on workers to feed them. -They live for 2 to 3 months. |
Bee jobs
Did you ever wonder where the expression "busy as a bee" comes from?
From the day it is born, the worker bee doesn't have a single day off. It performs most of the work that keeps the colony alive and continues working until it dies of exhaustion or old age.
Did you ever wonder where the expression "busy as a bee" comes from?
From the day it is born, the worker bee doesn't have a single day off. It performs most of the work that keeps the colony alive and continues working until it dies of exhaustion or old age.
Illustration by Racelle Ishak
Day 1-3:
The worker bee's first job is cleaning the hive and the bees in it to limit the chances of disease and make room in hive cells for new eggs, pollen and nectar.
Day 3-12:
The worker bee looks after the brood, keeping a constant temperature of around 35 °C at all times and capping the brood cells when the larvae are formed. It also feeds the queen and relays its orders by transmitting pheromones to the rest of the colony.
Day 12-20:
The worker bee begins producing wax from glands in its abdomen to build cells in the hive.
Day 20-23:
The worker bee guards the hive entrance, warding off marauding bees or predators like wasps or larger animals (lizards, snakes, rodents, larger mammals, etc.).
Day 23-43:
The worker bee spends the rest of its life patrolling the fields and gathering pollen, nectar, water, resin and other materials.
The worker bee's first job is cleaning the hive and the bees in it to limit the chances of disease and make room in hive cells for new eggs, pollen and nectar.
Day 3-12:
The worker bee looks after the brood, keeping a constant temperature of around 35 °C at all times and capping the brood cells when the larvae are formed. It also feeds the queen and relays its orders by transmitting pheromones to the rest of the colony.
Day 12-20:
The worker bee begins producing wax from glands in its abdomen to build cells in the hive.
Day 20-23:
The worker bee guards the hive entrance, warding off marauding bees or predators like wasps or larger animals (lizards, snakes, rodents, larger mammals, etc.).
Day 23-43:
The worker bee spends the rest of its life patrolling the fields and gathering pollen, nectar, water, resin and other materials.