Honey Bee Colony Structure

Honey Bee Colony Structure

The Humble Honey Bee

The bee is a creature that is very important to us, but it is often overlooked. The Honeybee with its distinctive markings is probably one of the most easily recognised insects on the planet. This insect plays a very important role in both the human and natural world and is a member of the insect order Hymenoptera. Since mankind discovered how tasty honey is, we have always had a fascination for the humble Honeybee, and have enjoyed various products they produce.

The bright colour pattern of the honeybees is a warning to any potential predators that they have a formidable weapon with which to defend themselves. Their egg-laying tube (ovipositor) is modified and combined with a venom gland (aculeus) to create a stinger which is located at the end of their abdomen. It is a little known fact that only the female of the species stings, this is because as mentioned above, the stinger is a modified structure only found in females. Fortunately, bees do not g sting for no reason and will only sting if the hive is under treat. They will then swam out and attack with their stinger to drive off the enemy.

Honeybees are social insects that live together in sophisticated nests called colonies or hives which may house up to 20,000 individuals in the wild or over 80,000 in domestic hives. Communication between themselves is made by using dances; the sounds from the movements are picked up by the tiny hairs on the bee's head. They go about their lives in a very orderly way and work together within a structured social order. Within each hive there will be three groups which specialize in only one activity. The different castes are queens, drones and workers.

- Queen. This bee is a fully fertile female. Per colony there is usually only one queen bee, and her main purpose in life is to produce eggs. Over 1,500 eggs can be laid per day and her life expectancy is from two to eight years. The Queen can affect and regulate the behaviour of the other bees within the colony by producing chemicals called "pheromones”. The queen is larger (up to 20mm), and her abdomen is longer than the other bees. She is equipped with chewing mouthparts and her stinger being curved without barbs on it can be used many times.

- Drones. These are male bees and do not have a stinger. Their life expectancy is short; only about eight weeks. Within a hive there will only be a few hundred drones, at most, five hundred. They have only one purpose and that is to mate with a new queen. Drones can be distinguished from other bees, due to larger eyes which help them to spot the queens when they are on their nuptial flight. They are considered to be non-essential and at the end of the season they will be driven out of the hive to die.

- Workers. A colony may have 2,000 to 60,000. These bees do everything that is required to maintain and operate the hive. They are sterile females that have a straight, barbed stinger that due to the barb, can only be used once as it is pulled out of the abdomen after use, killing the bee. Activities within the hive such as comb construction, brood rearing, tending the queen and drones, cleaning, temperature regulation and defence of the hive, is carried out by the house bees. The other workers are called field bees, and as the name suggests they forage outside the hive for nectar, pollen, water and certain sticky plant resins used in hive construction. If born early in the season they will only live for about six weeks, however if born later (fall) they will live until the following spring.

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