Biology of the Honey Bee

General Biology

There are a number of different species of Honeybee. The species most commonly found in the temperate climates of Europe and North America is Apis Mellifera. This is the most studied of all the species. The bees are just over 1cm long and live in colonies. An individual can not survive alone, it is dependent on the hive. Indeed, the bee hive is almost like an organism in itself in that it grows and reproduces. During winter the bees remain within the hive living in a semi-dormant state. They survive by feeding off stored honey. They emerge in the late spring and start foraging for food. In the autumn either half, or the whole colony will swarm and set out to search for a new hive.

A colony of bees contains around 30,000 workers, but just one Queen. The sole purpose of the Queen, who is larger than the workers, is to lay eggs. She is cleaned and fed by the workers who, despite being physiologically female, are incapable of mating. In each hive there are also a few hundred male bees called drones. The only purpose of the drones is to mate with the Queen. The rest of this chapter discusses only the worker bee.

The honeybee, like all insects, has three body segments. These segments are the head, thorax, and abdomen. On the head are a pair of antennae and a pair of compound eyes. The mandibles are mouthparts for chewing wax, biting flowers, and grabbing enemies. The proboscis is a long hollow straw for tasting and sucking up nectar. Also present in the head are some glands for the secretion of food (for feeding the Queen and drones) and for olfactory communication through pheromones. Attached to the thorax are six legs and two pairs of wings. The abdomen contains the sting, wax glands, and the digestive and sexual organs.

The job of worker bees is to search for suitable hive shelters, build the hive, rear the young, collect food, and to feed the queen and drones. Food is nectar and pollen gathered from flowers. Nectar, which is primarily carbohydrate, provides energy and is stored by conversion into honey. Pollen is the bee's source of protein. A worker bee is able carry a quantity of nectar greater than it's own body weight. Despite this, 75 foraging trips are required to gather enough nectar for just one gram of honey.

The Worker Bee Life Cycle

The lava hatch after 3 days in the egg. After another ten days of growth, they metamorphose into adult bees. After metamorphosis the adult bees progress through a further 3 weeks of development during which their responsibilities to the hive change. During the first week they clean the hexagonal cells of the honeycomb and prepare them for food storage or the acceptance of eggs. The mandibular glands then mature and the young workers start to feed the larvae and queen with secreted jelly. This stage only lasts a few days before the mandibular glands atrophy and the wax-secreting glands mature. The worker then progresses to building the honeycomb. After a few days the wax glands atrophy and the worker starts unloading food from returning foragers. The forager bees regurgitate nectar which the unloader accepts and deposits in a cell. The next stage in development is to spend a day or two guarding the entrance to the hive. By this time the young adults have learnt the unique scent of their hive. They can distinguish this home scent from that carried in the waxy fur of foreign bees. They use this memory to recognise intruders and prevent them from entering the hive. Before emerging as a fully fledged adult the workers engage in short orientation flights just outside of the hive. During this "playing" the bees learn to recognise the look of the hive, the lay of the land, and how the sun moves across the sky. At 3 weeks old they begin foraging for food. Typically an individual will die after just two weeks of foraging. However many individuals will also survive till the autumn when they enter hibernation for the winter.