1. Essex County Beekeepers' Association
Topsfield, MA

2. Bee School
Bee Basics
February 20, 2007

3. Three Castes of Honey Bees
There are three types of honeybees (Apis millifera) in a hive:
Thousands of female WORKERs,
Hundreds of male DRONEs, and
One QUEEN (complete female).

5. Bee Type Gestation See Page 11 in “Beekeeping Handbook”
Also note “Life Cycle” poster on the wall.
While you do not need to memorize these now, you will need to know all these stages to tend to the bees.

6. The Worker Bee
The life of all honeybees starts as an egg, about the size of a comma "," which is laid by the queen in the bottom of a wax cell in the brood area of a hive. A worker egg hatches after 3 days into a larva. Nurse bees feed it royal jelly at first, then pollen & honey for 6 days. It then becomes an inactive pupa. The honey comb has hexagon cells on both sides of a vertical central wall. As shown in the photo, these cells are inclined upward, primarily to retain liquid nectar and honey.

7. The Worker Bee
During its 14 days as a pupa, sealed in a capped cell, it grows into a worker (female) bee, emerging on the 20th day. Workers do everything but lay eggs and mate. They build the comb from wax extruded from glands under their abdomen. They clean, defend, and repair the hive. They feed the larva, the queen, and the drones. They gather nectar, pollen, water, and propolis. They ventilate, cool & heat the hive.

8. Age related jobs of the Worker
0-3 days
Cleaning self, comb, hive
3-15 days
Feeding older brood honey, pollen, water, some royal jelly
Feeding 0-3 day brood royal jelly (hypopharyngeal glands)
Queen attendant
12-15 days
Orientation flight (wing muscles)
15-18 days
Building Comb (wax glands)
Ventilating the hive
Processing\Packing Honey, pollen, propolis, and water
Guard duty
21+ days
Field Bee – Forager, Scout, Robber

9. Duties of A Worker Bee

10. The Drones
Male bees are called drones. They emerge in 24 days, larger than the female workers. They have large eyes and no stinger. They lead a life of leisure, doing no work while being fed by the workers. Their sole purpose is to mate with a queen from any hive, thereby transferring the genetic traits of their mother. They die upon mating, or are expelled from the hive as winter approaches.

11. The Queen
Before an old queen dies, or departs to start another hive, she lays an egg in a large queen cell. The nurse bees feed the larva a diet of only royal jelly, or bee's milk, made from a gland on their heads. In only 16 days a new queen emerges. She seeks out and destroys any rival queens, because there can be only one queen per colony.

12. The Queen
When 10 days old, a new queen takes a high maiden flight, pursued by drones from nearby hives. In about 13 minutes, she mates with 7 or more of them, storing their sperm for the rest of her life of 2-5 years. She produces chemical scents which regulate hive activity.
The queen will fly several miles to a “Drone congregation area”. She will typically take two mating flights and mate with 8-16 drones. The queen will not mate again for the rest of her 2-6 year life. She stores the sperm in a sac and dispenses the sperms one at a time as she lays eggs.

13. The Queen
The queen lays about 1200 eggs per day, about 200,000 per season. This is necessary since worker bees only live 6 weeks in the summertime; and a colony needs to have 40 to 50 thousand bees at its peak. She is cared for by the worker bees. This queen has been marked with a red dot for easy identification.
When the queen lays an egg she also adds one of her stored sperms to fertilize the egg. The resulting egg will be female.
If however the wax cell is of a lager diameter, she will NOT add a sperm. This will result in a DRONE. Drones do not have fathers!
If the workers want a new queen they move a fertilized egg into a special large wax cell and feed the larvae a special diet of Royal Jelly. This special diet results in a queen.
The workers are really the boss of the hive. By creating larger cells they can increase the drone population. By moving fertilized eggs to larger cells and altering the diet, they can create new queens

14. Worker Bee Behavior
Worker bees gather pollen which they stick to their back legs, to carry back to the hive where it is used as food. Pollen from the stamens of one flower, stick to their bodies, and is carried to another flower where it rubs off onto the pistil, resulting in cross pollination. Mankind's food supply depends greatly on crop pollination by honeybees. Nectar is sucked up through the proboscis, mixed with enzymes in the stomach, and carried back to the hive, where it is stored in wax cells and evaporated into honey.

15. Worker Bee Behavior
Worker bees must maintain the hive's brood chamber at 94 degrees F to incubate the eggs. If it is too hot, they collect water and deposit it around the hive, then fan air through with their wings causing cooling by evaporation. If it is too cold, they cluster together to generate body heat. Propolis, or tree resin, is used to seal any openings in the hive against drafts or invaders.

16. External Anatomy

17. Glands of a Worker Honey Bee

18. Home

19. Internal Anatomy
Two guts. The first is used to store and transport nectar from the field back to hive. The second Is for digestion.

20. Bee Crossing

21. Bee Taxonomy Kingdom…. Animal Phylum……Arthropoda Class………Insecta
Order………Hymenoptera
Family……..Apidae
Genus……..Apis
Species……mellifera

22. Bee Taxonomy Phylum Arthropod
External Skeleton, Chitinous, Segmented, Invertebrates
Class
Insecta
Hexapoda
Six legged
3 major body parts, head, thorax, abdomen
Order
Hymenoptera
2 sets of joined wings
‘Hymen’, Greek god of marriage
SubOrder
Apocrita
Ants, Bees, and Wasps
SuperFamily
Apoidea
Bees
Family
Apidae
Food exchange, pollen baskets, storage of honey & pollen
SubFamily
Tribe
Apini
Perennial, social colonies, highly eusocial
Genus
Apis
Honeybees
Species
mellifera

23. Species of Bees Apis cerana Apis koschevnikovi Apis nigrocineta
Apis dorsata
Apis laboriosa
Apis florea
Apis andreniformis
Apis mellifera

24. Species: Apis mellifera
A mellifera mellifera – German (1630)
A mellifera ligustica – Italian (1830)
A mellifera carnica – Carniolan - Yugoslavia (1883)
A mellifera caucasca – Caucasian – Caucasus (1905)
mellifera scutellata – African (1950)
Hybrids
Buckfast
Starline
…..

25. Genetic Traits of Races
Color
Temperament
Handling Ease
Production
Swarming Tendency
Winter Hardiness
Propolizing
Disease Resistance
Cleanliness
Population of Hive
Pollen Hoarding
Honey Hoarding
Conservation of stores
Plant preference
Tongue Length
Whiteness of Cappings

26. External Anatomy
Head
Thorax
Abdomen

27. External Anatomy
Worker bees produce Wax from glands under their abdomen. The bees first gorge themselves with honey and then sit idles for about 24 hours. This is one of the most difficult jobs bees do. While producing wax the Bees “join hands” called “festooning”. See page 18.

28. The Head

29. The Eyes
Two compound eyes similar to other insects. Additionally three more simple eyes which can detect the polarized light and used for navigation by polarity of sunlight.

30. The Mouth Parts
The tongue is like a mop.