forest developer

Chapter 73 The Kingdom of Bees

"In general, a hive consists of three types: queen bee, worker bee, and drone bee.

First, let's talk about the queen bee.

The queen bee is the only female bee in the colony with fully developed reproductive organs.

Developed from fertilized eggs in Wangtaili, the body is a quarter or even twice as long as a worker bee.

The abdomen is long and conical, accounting for about three-quarters of the body length, and the wings are shorter, covering only half of the abdomen. The stinger is not like that of worker bees, only slightly barbed, and is only used when fighting with competing queen bees .

The movement is slow and unhurried, but the movement is very quick when necessary.

The function of the queen bee is to lay eggs.

A good queen bee can lay about 1500 eggs every day and night during the spawning period.

The quality of the queen bee and its ability to lay eggs have a decisive effect on the strength of the bee colony and its genetic traits.

Only by breeding good and strong queen bees can the bee colony maintain a strong colony and high production performance.

There is generally only one queen bee in a bee colony, if there is a queen bee in the group, the bees will divide into groups.

When two queen bees appear, they will fight each other until one is left. However, in natural alternation, the old queen bee may also live in the same nest with the new queen bee for a period of time.

There must be a queen bee in the colony.

The guard bee knows whether the queen bee exists in the colony by passing the queen bee substance secreted by the queen bee in the hive.

If the queen bee is not there, after a few minutes, the work order in the bee colony will be seriously affected, and the worker bees will appear anxious.

At this time, as long as a queen bee is lured into the bee colony that has lost the queen bee or a mature queen bee is added, the restless state of the bee colony will soon change and resume normal activities.
The queen bee receives special care from the worker bees throughout her life.

Especially during the spawning period, they receive special care.

Usually, it is surrounded by guard bees composed of young worker bees.

The guard worker bee faces the queen bee and touches the queen bee continuously with its antennae, licks it, and removes its excrement.

Worker bees feed the queen bee with royal jelly. If there are no worker bees, the queen bee's oviposition function cannot be realized.

After the queen bee stops laying eggs, the worker bees take less care of it and no longer feed the queen bee with royal jelly.

At this time, the queen bee had to go to the honeycomb to get honey by herself.

The life span of the queen bee is generally 3 to 5 years, and the longest can reach 8 to 9 years.

The second is the worker bees.

Worker bees have the smallest body length in the colony, but they are the largest in number!

They are females that develop from fertilized eggs in worker hives.

However, the reproductive organs are not fully developed, and its ovaries are small. Except for the abnormal situation that there is no queen bee in the bee colony, they generally do not lay eggs.

Worker bees are small in size, dark brown in body, with gray-yellow fine hairs densely growing on the head, thorax and back.

The head is slightly triangular, with a pair of compound eyes, three monocular eyes, a pair of antennae, and knee-like bends;

Well-developed mouthparts, suitable for chewing and sucking;

There are three pairs of feet, femur, tibia and tarsus all have structures for collecting pollen.

The abdomen is conical, the back is yellow-brown, 1-4 segments have black links, the end is sharp, and there are poisonous glands and stingers;
There are four pairs of wax plates on the abdomen, and there are wax glands inside, which secrete wax.

They have all the organs to perform various tasks required for the development of the bee colony, including pollen baskets, scent glands, etc., so the worker bees are responsible for various tasks inside and outside the colony.

Its functions vary with age.

This phenomenon is called the phenomenon of different ages and different jobs.

The main duty of worker bees under 3 days old is to clean up the nest room for the queen bee to lay eggs;
In the next two weeks, with the development of tongue glands (vegetative glands, royal jelly glands), wax glands, and poisonous glands, they secrete royal jelly to feed the queen bee.

At the same time, queen bee (queen substance, a pheromone) is obtained from the queen bee to feed the larvae, and the larvae jelly (royal jelly plus honey and bee food) is prepared to feed the large larvae.

It is also responsible for adjusting the temperature and humidity in the nest, making the air circulate in the box, secreting beeswax, building the spleen, collecting gum to fill the gaps in the beehive, receiving nectar to brew honey, and guarding the hive.

During the peak breeding period of the bee colony, especially before the bee separation, the worker bees also feed the drones.

With the change of position and the growth of age; they are transferred from the center of the hive to the outside of the hive.

Worker bees about 3 weeks old start to work outside the nest, collecting nectar, pollen, water, propolis, etc., or scouting for honey sources.

However, their functions can be changed according to changes in environmental conditions and the needs of the bee colony, and they have great plasticity.
The lifespan of worker bees is 4-6 weeks in summer and 3-6 months in winter.The length of its lifespan has a lot to do with the intensity of work and the potential of bee colonies.

Worker bees have the shortest lifespan during the production season. In winter and early spring, the workers who have survived the winter in the colony gradually die, and in late spring, when the number of new worker bees produced exceeds the number of dead old worker bees, the colony begins to grow.In the peak breeding season, the number of worker bees in a strong colony can reach 5 to 6.
Finally, a word about drones.

Drones develop from unfertilized eggs in the drone hive and are the male individuals of the colony.

It has a stout body, almost round head and tail, large and protruding compound eyes, wide wings, and strong feet, which can quickly find and chase the queen bee.

The quality of the drone's species and physique, the number and activity of its eggs have a direct impact on the genetic traits and quality of the offspring of the new bee colony.

Drones lack stingers, poison sacs, pollen baskets, and wax-producing organs.

It has a short tongue that feeds from the honey storage room in the nest, and has no working ability. His only task is to mate with the virgin queen full-time.

大多数雄蜂在7～10日龄内开始飞行,8～14日龄左右性成熟,12～20日龄是交配适龄期。

The flight of the drone and the mating of the queen bee are usually carried out between 1 and 5 pm on a sunny day. After mating with the queen bee, the reproductive organs remain in the female bee's abdomen and soon die.

Drones consume a large amount of feed, and the larval stage is 1 to 2 times that of worker bees;
Adult bees consume more feed, and usually eat honey on the honeycomb. During the breeding season, worker bees will be fed pollen, bee food and other nutritious feed.
Drones live up to several months, but most die prematurely.During autumn in the north and before summer in the south, when the nectar source is scarce, the worker bees will not let the drones eat the stored honey in the bee colony that has mated with the queen bee, and will be driven out of the nest by the worker bees.

Because drones cannot feed and defend, they will freeze and starve to death soon after leaving the colony.

Therefore, a perfect hive is a microcosm of a society. They have different shapes and functions, division of labor and cooperation, and interdependence, just like a big family or even a country in human society.

Now go back and talk about the hive you built, is there a queen bee?

How many worker bees are there?
Are there drones?

Even the most basic three members of the honeycomb are not complete, can it be regarded as a honeycomb?

Look, the dozen or so of them crawling in and out of the hive room just because there is no queen bee, they lost their work order and seemed anxious—hey!its not right! "

Li Yan, who had been talking eloquently for a long time, was about to end his words when he suddenly realized something was wrong. In surprise, he went up to the linden tree and carefully observed the bees entering and leaving the hive. After a while, he screamed out loud Get up: "This can't be done!"

Everyone didn't know what Li Yan had discovered, seeing his face full of horror as if he had bumped into a ghost in broad daylight, they asked in unison, "What's wrong?"

Li Yan pointed at the hive and stammered, "Look, all the bees that come in and out are actually queen bees! My God, what's going on!"

(End of this chapter)