Could you imagine being so happy you found food you perform a dance to announce the fact? Honey bees do. They tell fellow honey bees the location, distance, size and quality of that particular food. Honey bees — and National Honey Bee Day is Saturday — are one of the hardest working species, pollinating flowers, fruits and vegetables.
The world has more than 20,000 species of bees, but only eight are honey bees. Honey bees are originally from Africa and Eurasia. The European or western honey bee (Apis mellifera), and its subspecies and hybrids, is the honeybee found in the U.S. Scientists introduced subspecies into South America in the early 16th century, North America in the early 17th century and Australia in the early 19th century. But while not a native species, the honeybee is important for the economic and ecological services they provide.
A single honey colony has tens of thousands of bees of three types: workers, drones and queens. Worker bees are all female and tend to the hive and collect honey. The worker bees are the only bees most people ever see outside the hive. They are known to roam up to five miles from their hives. Worker bees only live for five weeks. Drones are all males and are responsible for mating with the queen. Several hundred drones live in the hive during the spring and summer, but are exiled and die in the winter. The queen rules over the other bees, lays the eggs, and is the foundation of the hive. Queen bees can live up to five years. Usually there is only one queen per hive. Without a queen the colony would not survive.
Queens can lay up to 2,500 eggs a day. Unfertilized eggs become drones. Fertilized eggs become workers or queens. Both are fed royal jelly at first, but only the future queens are continued on the diet. Queens emerge after 16 days, workers take about 21 days, and drones take 24 days. After emerging, the new queens fight to the death. The surviving new queen will take a one-time mating flight, away from the hive and back, to mate with male drones. This flight will give her the ability to lay fertilized eggs for the next three to five years. The old queen also will be killed unless she has already left the hive with a group of worker bees called a swarm.
The western honey bee has three body segments; head, thorax and abdomen. The worker bees have a fourth segment on both hind legs that carries pollen. They have an amber-colored, striped abdomen formed of six visible sections. Each is dotted with tiny openings, known as spiracles, used for respiration. Honey bees have two large compound eyes on both sides of their head, and three simple eyes in the middle of their forehead. These three extra eyes allow them to use the sun for navigation. The honeybee has two sensitive odor-detecting antennae with 170 specialized receptors.
Honey bees also have specialized mouth parts that include both a sucking proboscis and mandibles for chewing. The mandibles permit the insects to manipulate wax and clean other bees, while the proboscis is used to collect, share and consume nectar, water and honey. A honey bee’s brain is as small as a sesame seed, however it has an excellent memory. Honey bees make honey and eat it, but they eat more. Honey bees need a balanced diet like us. Carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and amino acids are vital. Honey bee food comes from flowers. The carbohydrates are from the nectar and protein is from the pollen. What honey bees eat varies depending on their development stage, role in the colony and food availability.
Unfortunately, honey bees are a declining population because of climate change, pollution, disease and pesticides. Climate change brings heat waves, droughts and storms that reduce flowers and food. Air pollution can affect the antennas, and in turn the balance, flying and reproduction. Pesticides a disrupt the honey bee’s memory and learning. Parasitic mites affect honey bees with chronic infections and make them more susceptible to viruses and other stressors.
Bees are essential to the pollination of crops as diverse as onions, fruit trees, strawberries and almonds. Honey bees’ value is not just in the nutrient dense honey they produce, but in the billions of dollars of produce require pollination. They are a very necessary bee and help feed the world. So when you see a honey bee, just let it bee.
Emily Stansfield is a conservation aide with the Cortland County Soil and Water Conservation District.
