Each
of our hives each has about 50,000 bees. Each
hive has one queen, and 100 female worker bees
for every male drone bee. The queen’s only
job is to lay eggs and a drone’s job is
to mate with the queen. The worker bees are responsible
for everything else: gathering nectar, guarding
the hive and honey, caring for the queen and larvae,
keeping the hive clean, and producing honey.
The Queen Bee
The queen is like the goddess: her life is committed
to selfless service by being the reproductive
center of the hive. She lays all the eggs (about
1,500 per day!) and only leaves the hive once
in
her life in order to mate.
Becoming the queen bee is a matter
of luck. Queens become queens only because as
eggs they had the good fortune of being laid in
cells specifically designated for raising queens.
Then, they are fed more “royal jelly”
(which contains more honey and pollen than the
“larval jelly” that is eaten by workers
and drones), allowing them to grow larger than
other female bees.
Without a queen, life in the hive
grows chaotic. The worker bees forage for nectar
and pollen less, and when they do forage, they
bring less back to the hive. When the queen dies
(or if she slows down egg production), worker
bees once again designate queen cells and raise
new virgin queens.
The Male Drones
A male drone has only one purpose in life: to
mate with the queen. And, there are 100 female
worker bees for every male drone bee. While this
may be appealing to some males, a drone’s
life is hardly enviable.
Drones
are incapable of feeding themselves or foraging
for food, they lack stingers, and they die immediately
after mating. And, when times are lean or during
the winter (when the queen does not mate), worker
bees force drones outside the hive, leaving them
to starve. But, don’t worry…our male
bees don’t suffer because Hawaii’s
year-round warm climate ensures consistent warm
weather…and our beekeepers make sure they
are always in a honey flow!
The
Female Workers
“A woman’s work never ends.”
Nowhere is this statement truer than in the hive,
where all of the work is done by female bees,
which outnumber male bees by a ratio of 100 to
1
Worker
bees are responsible for every job in the hive
except reproduction. The female worker bees have
different positions within the hive. Some are
scouts, some are guards, some care for the queen,
some produce honey, etc. Below are some of the
jobs in the hive:
“House”
Bee Activities: |
| Nursing: |
Nurse
bees feed and care for growing larvae. |
| Attending
the Queen: |
Attendants to the queen groom her and feed
her frequently. |
| Cleaning
the Hive: |
This may involve cleaning used cells or clearing
the hive of debris. |
| Cleaning
other Bees: |
These chores involve cleaning dust, stray
hairs, and other debris
off several others in rapid succession.
|
| Undertaker
duties: |
Although 90% of bees die outside the hive,
those that do not are
dropped immediately outside the hive to dry.
After they have dried, undertaker bees pick
them up, fly them several hundred meters from
the hive, and drop them (to prevent dead bees
from accumulating by the hive, which could
attract pests or pestilence). |
| Building
Honeycomb: |
Bees secrete beeswax and use it to build honeycomb.
Oftentimes
hundreds of bees will work on the same small
section of comb.
|
| Capping
Honeycomb: |
Bees secrete beeswax and use it to cap pupae
cells and cells full of ripened honey. |
| Pollen
Packing: |
House bees collect pollen from returning foragers
and pack it in cells for later consumption. |
| Nectar
Ripening: |
House bees ripen nectar into raw honey by
depositing it in cells, and fanning the nectar
so that excess water evaporates. |
| Repairing
Hive: |
Bees use propolis to repair cracks in the
hive and to cover foreign particles that are
too large to remove. |
Forager
Bee Activities: |
| Collecting
Nectar & Pollen: |
Bees visit 50-100 flowers to collect nectar
and pollen on each foraging trip. They carry
nectar in their “honey sacks”
and pollen in the “pollen baskets”
on their legs. |
| Collecting Propolis: |
Certain
bees only collect propolis (“bee glue”),
gathering the resinous substance from trees
and carrying it home in their “pollen
baskets.” |
| Collecting
Water: |
1% of the bees in the hive collect water.
Water helps keep the hive cool and allows
nurse bees to dilute raw honey for young larvae. |
| Guard
the Hive: |
Guard
bees protect the hive, stinging intruders
and emitting a pheromone to warn bees inside
the hive of impending danger. |
|
