The Honey Bee
The Honey Bee along with the
Bumble Bees, Solitary Bees and some flies are the dominant carriers of
insect born plant pollination. The majority of flowering plants
are dependent on them, including some of our crops. It is this
relationship of pollination and the plants providing the Bees with food
that has guided their evolution for approximately 30 million
years. They've been around 25.5 million years long than us.
It is only recently that man has had significant impact on their
environment and development, unfortunately a lot has been detrimental
but we can address this and is one of the aspects of modern Beekeeping
in Britain.
There is only one species of
Honey Bee in the British Isles, Apis
Mellifera. There are subspecies or races but the majority of
Honey Bees are now mongrelised. This is not the case in many
countries where specific races dominate a region. But that's
another story.
The Bee is well known for forming colonies. But the Honey Bee is
unique among Bees as they live as a collective group throughout
the whole year. At it's peak around July a colony will have between 40
000
to 60 000 Bees. In each colony there are two sexes, the females
and males or Drones. The females exist as two castes, the workers
and the Queen. The Queen's singular function is to lay eggs,
pretty dull really but obviously crucial. A Queen may survive from one
to
five years and is superceded by one of her off spring.
It is this process that leads to swarming around April, May &
June. The old Queen will leave the nest accompanied by over half
the Bees in the colony. Left behind are several Queen cells from
which virgin Queens will emerge. These new Queens may leave with
more Bees as another swarm or Caste. Alternatively they may fight
to the death, the winner is the new Queen for the colony.
The workers make up somewhere
between 85% to 99.99% of the colony depending on the time of
year. They are probably the only Honey Bee most people will ever
see. They are roughly 15mm long and come in a variety
of colours. Contrary to popular imagery the Honey Bee can
be completey black, have black & grey stripes, black and
brown stripes or black & dusty yellow stripes. If
you've found something that's black with bright yellow stripes it's
probably a Wasp. It's easily guessed, the Worker Honey Bee does
all the work, from feeding the larvae, building the wax comb, cleaning
the comb cells ready for new eggs, controlling the hive temperature,
defending the hive against predators and most bizarrely being
undertakers. Some Bees actually specialise in carrying away dead
Bees from the hive. Worker Bees also do all the foraging
for Nectar, Pollen, Water and Proplis (Bee glue). Bee glue is the
scourge of Beekeepers, it sticks anything and everything but that's its
purpose, it helps keep the hive intact. The Bees use a simple
principle, 'if it's lose, glue it'.
A peculiarity of the worker Bee is how long it lives for. In
Summer it's life can be anywhere from 28 to 45 days, a short
life. Over Autumn and Winter Bees have been recorded to live for
3 to 6 months. These 'Winter' Bees are what enable them to
survive during the quiet time of the year.
The unique behaviour of the Honey
to stay as a colony throughout the year is what enables us to use
them. By staying as a group the Honey Bee has developed
strategies for storing large quantities of stores for the Winter months
and for periods when flowering falls or fails. These stores are
Honey. By careful management we are able to harvest these stores
without detriment to the Bees. If you think it's stealing, it is,
but then the majority of unmanaged colonies die of starvation in
their first year, with the good care of a Beekeeper this shouldn't
happen.
Life cycle of the Honey Bee.
| Spring |
In early Spring as the Crocus' &
Snowdrops emerge so do the Bees. On warm days they will start
flying to collect nectar, pollen and water. The Queen will
increase egg laying and the number of Bees will initially dip but as
the larger number of Bees emerge the colony grows at a surprising
rate. This is possibly the most vulnerable time for Bees as
Winter stores may be low. In mid Spring the colony may prepare for swarming by growing rapidly and setting a large amount of brood. The Bees will build numerous Queen cells. Once a critical point is reached the Bees diet the Queen for flying and a swarm issued. A swarm will eat large quantities of stores in preparation for building wax in their new home, if they find one. |
| Summer |
The Bees left after a swarm carry on
while waiting for the new Queen to emerge & mate. If they
haven't swarmed they just carry on. This is the bumper season for
collecting nectar. A hive may generate anywhere between 30lb to
90lb of honey. THe hive will peak around July then begin to
slowly dwindle in August. |
| Autumn |
The colony will now be geting ready
for Winter. The 'Winter' bees will be raised and the colony
number falls significantly. They will enter Winter at around 20
000. The Drones are kicked out, no point in having too many to
feed. The Bees will start to cluster i.e. form a tight
ball. This neat process allows them to save energy by insulating
themselves. |
| Winter |
The Queen may continue laying in the
centre of the cluster but it is not unusual for hr to stop
completely. The Bees will remain as a cluster but on bright warm
days may fly out for a quick toilet flight. As the days grow
longer the Bees begin to break cluster and begin hive maintenance in
readiness for the Spring. |