Beverley
Beekeepers' Association
The
local Beekeeping Association for East
Yorkshire
Honeybees
The honeybee is smaller than the bumblebee and wasp, being
stripped black and orange /
brown although they can be almost black. They have a few
scanty hairs and a small waist.
Bees forage on pollen for feeding the young and nectar to
feed the adults. The nectar is
processed by the bees for them to store as honey.
Honey bees like the bumblebee are vital
for pollination.
Honeybees are social insects that live in colonies, the
colonies with a queen may survive for
many years. The nest is constructed in the wild in a cavity
from wax secreated from the wax
glands of the worker bees. The beekeeper will provide a
colony with a hive in which to make
their nest. The number of bees in the colony varies
seasonally being less in the winter and
up to about 50,000 during the summer.
The queen bee is larger and more elongated than the
workers. She lays the eggs that will
become the workers, the male bees or drones and at the
right time future queen bees.
Honeybees increase by swarming. The original queen will
leave the colony with the foraging
or older bees, leaving behind the younger bees and a new
unmated queen developing to
continue the colony on the original site.
The departing swarm contains many bees that will have
gorged themselves on honey before
leaving. They will cluster and rest not far from their
original colony while the scout bees
search for a site for their new home. The swarm will then
move together to the chosen site –
a hollow tree, a chimney, an old empty hive etc.
Honeybees are not aggressive and will usually only sting if
threatened. The sting of the
honeybee has a barb and the bee can therefore only sting
once and will usually die as the
sting pulls part of the abdomen away from the bee. Like the
wasp the venom contains a
pheromone that will alert other bees and may cause other to
become more aggressive and
sting.
Swarms of bees are not generally dangerous as they are
initially full of honey making it more
difficult for them to bend their abdomen to sting and they
do not have stores of honey or
larva
to protect. However, it is prudent to maintain a safe
distance unless you have
experience of bees or the use of protective clothing.
Again there are numerous informative websites again the bbc
site is informative
www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/425shtml.