Bee Family Life

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Bee roles

How honey is prepared in a bee family and takes care of the health of all its members

Bees are divided into hive and flight bees. Hive bees work only in the hive, while flight bees work on flowers, trees and bring them to their hive: nectar, propolis, pollen and even water.

There is a system of distribution of labor between the hive bees: some of them guard the entrance to the hive, others build honeycombs, and still others fill these honeycombs with nectar or pollen. The fact is that a flying bee that has brought bribes to its hive does not know which honeycomb to put it in. Therefore, she immediately gives bribes to the hive bees who specialize in this product.

If she brings:

- nectar, then the hive bees, which are responsible for the preservation of the nectar, will carry it to the honeycomb, where they make honey from the nectar;

- pollen, the hive bees, which are engaged in the manufacture of bee bread, will take it to the place in the hive where bee bread is made from pollen;

- propolis, the hive bees, which are "responsible" for this product, will remove it from the leg of the flight bee and use it for its intended purpose.

And to take away the products brought from the flight bees (propolis, pollen, nectar), they perform a special dance - they call the beehive.

There are also hive bees that only look after the queen bee. She is fed, watered, cleaned and guarded. There is always a retinue of several dozen bees around it. The task of the queen bee is to lay bee and drone eggs in the combs. According to scientists, the uterus can lay from 1500 to 2000 pieces of bee eggs per day. The length of one bee egg is from 1.43 mm to 1.61 mm, and the width is 0.33 mm. Larvae hatch from these eggs on the third day. The length of one larva is up to 1.6 mm, and it weighs 0.11 mg. These larvae are fed for three days with a special milk, which they prepare themselves. Nursing bees not only feed the brood, but also warm it with their bodies. To keep it from freezing in summer, the temperature in the brood hive should be + 32 ° C.

Once, observing the bees that live in my glass hive, I noticed two bees: the first of them was sitting still, and the other was climbing over it. At first I thought that I had caught a "thief", and began to observe with interest when the hive bees would kill her. Imagine my surprise when the hive bee let go of the "thief", and she calmly hung on the comb. In any case, none of the two bees tried to harm each other. A hive bee, let's call it a purifier bee, moved on to the next individual, which “stood in line,” and began her courtship ritual anew. First, the purifier began to rummage through the bee's fur in the upper chest. Then she moved further along the upper chest, closer to the wings. Between the wings, she began to "cleanse", periodically pulling something out from under the wing with her jaws. With the front legs, I began to “grind” each wing like with my hands, periodically lowering my head under the wing of the bee. One got the impression that a cleaning bee was pulling something out from under its wing and rubbing the wings of its "patient". During the entire procedure, the "patient" practically did not move, spread her wings and allowed herself to be "served". There was a feeling that she was pleased with the cleaning and courting of the cleaning bee. After the purifier finished cleaning and leaving her friend,she switched to another bee and started the cleaning procedure again.

Bees ask to serve themselves with the help of dance. They dance, probably in order to inform their relatives that something is bothering them. And if it worries, it means that "help" is needed. Therefore, the purifier bee does not go to all the bees in a row, but only to those who perform such a "dance". If the cleaners are already busy serving other bees, then the dancer bees will hang on the combs or frame bars and wait for their "turn". Sometimes you can see a dozen bees "queuing up" waiting for "free service".

There were cases when a cleaning bee bit something out of the patient's wool and carried it away from her. And it happened that the cleaner climbed under the bee, took out something and also carried it away from her "patient".

Based on these observations, I came to the conclusion that in strong bee colonies, not only the queen is cared for, but also simple bee individuals. Probably, most of these patient bees are flight bees. The cleaning bee provides them with services:

• cleansing of the breasts, which are covered with hair. Perhaps, the cleaning bees remove the remnants of pollen from the wool of the flying bee, which has adhered to the wool of the bee, and because of this it is difficult for it to fly;
• cleaning and massage of the wings. The purifier may be covering the wings of flying bees with a thin layer of wax;
• search and destruction of pests on the bee: bee lice, which are in the wool, possibly mites.

It has long been known that in nature, mammals, for example, monkeys, groom each other. Bees, living also in a collective, can look for pests from each other, they even clean each other! Moreover, they are in a confined space - in a hive. They fly into free space only in search of food. And in winter and autumn they sit in their house - a hive, without getting out for more than six months. If a bee colony does not take care of the health of its "population", then the bees living in it can then get sick, and the colony will cease to exist.