Honey Bees

Honey Bees -Apis mellifera

Description: The honey bee has five eyes to see the world around them; although not very well. They cannot focus their vision because they have no pupils. Of all the insects known to mankind, the honey bees were the first to be able to distinguish colors from each other. However, the color red is not distinguishable by the bee's eyesight. The antennae are the jointed feelers, slender in stature, that are attached to the front of the bee's head. The sense organs are served as the tiny hairs that are on the bee's antennae. In order for the bee to get water, nectar, and honey into it's mouth, it must use it's tongue to suck it from it's place of origin. The bee also has two jaws; one on each side of it's tongue. They are used to grasp pollen and wax. There are two sets of wings to the bee's structure. One pair on each side of the thorax. There are six legs, each with five main joints. There are three legs on each side of the thorax. There are also very tiny segments that make up the foot. The stinger is the part of the body that most of the bees depend on. When the bee stings something, it produces a poisonous venom.

Life Cycle: An egg is laid by the queen bee. The queen bee lays as many as 2,000 eggs a day. That is equal to one egg every 43 seconds. As soon as the queen lays the egg, a bee starts to develop. The food that is fed to the developing bee is called royal jelly. Five days after the larva hatches, a cap is built over the cell by the workers. When they are ready, the bees will bite their way out of the cell. It will take twenty-one days for an adult worker, and twenty-four days for a drone.

Queen Bee: The queen's only job is to lay eggs. If she stops laying eggs, the workers will move one of her most recently laid eggs to a specially prepared queen cell to produce a new queen. The new queen destroys any un-hatched queens or any currently living queens. The virgin queen bees fly to the congregation area where the drones mate with her in a frenzy; several are on her in mid-flight.

Drone Bees: Their one and main function is to mate with the queens so the they can produce their eggs. The drones don't usually mate with the queens of their own colony. Only during the summer are the drones present in the colony. Because their tongues are not long enough to obtain nectar, they depend on workers to feed them. During the fall season, the workers are put on strike and do not feed the drones anymore. Therefore, the drones are drug out of the hive and left to die. As soon as the drones mate with the queens, they die (for ego purposes).

Worker Bees: The workers can either be males or sterile females. They do not lay eggs, neither do they mate. A worker cleans the hive for the first three days of it's adult life. For the next several days it feeds developing honey bees. There are certain dances that are done by the scouts' (worker bees) that lead the other worker bees to the honey. The worker bees produce wax to build honey comb cells. The worker stands guard at the entrance of the hive, and receives nectar collected by other bees after building the honey combs. It begins to hunt for food when it is about three weeks old. For the rest of it's life it will continue this job. Worker bees attempt to protect the colony by stinging the invaders to death. The worker bees are worked to death 20-40 days during the summer and 140 days during the winter.

Location: Cumberland School's Nature Preserve, 1496 IL Rt. 121, Toledo IL 62468

GPS Coordinates: 39^o, WO 88^o, Linear: N 15.345", WO 11.749", Elevation: 600 ft., Distance: 2.30 ft., Bearing: Southwest.

Resources:

Koning, Ross E. The Biology of the Honey Bee. 2004 access date:29 October 2004 <http://koning.ecsu.ctstateu.edu/Plants_Human/bees/bees.html>

"Bees" The World Book Encyclopedia. 2004 ed.

MSN Maps and Directions. nd. access date: 29 October 2004 <www.mapblast.com>

Contact Information: lstarwalt@cumberland.k12.il.us

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