Habits and development of bees

Bees are one of the most common insects in the natural environment. So far, there are 9 species of bees recognized by people. Among them, Chinese bee and Italian bee are the most well-known in China, but different bee species have the same habits and development. Let ’s take a look at the habits and development process of bees!

1, pick flowers and make honey

Bees are known and used because they can collect flowers and honey. In fact, bees collect flowers and honey for the survival of the colony. Most of the pollen and nectar collected by the bees are consumed by the colony as food, The remaining nectar is made by the bees and stored in the hive. When the food is scarce or cannot be collected from the nest, the colony feeds on the stored honey. The main purpose of the beekeepers is to obtain honey

2, Secreting wax to build nests

The hive as a whole is composed of several or ten dozen nests that are relatively parallel and perpendicular to the ground. The nest spleen is made of beeswax secreted by the worker beeswax glands and arranged in a large number of hexagonal nests. These nests are used by bee colonies to feed larvae and store food. But not all worker bees in the colony can secrete beeswax. In fact, the peak period of worker beeswax secretion is 13 to 18 days of age. After 18 days of age, worker beeswax no longer secretes beeswax due to the degradation of wax glands.

3, taste recognition

Honeybees are typical social insects, and the group smell (group smell) is the main basis for mutual recognition between bee colonies. Under normal circumstances, there are guard bees at the door of the colony of bees. The guard bees will be released when they encounter workers with the same taste. When encountering worker bees with different tastes, the guard bees will drive away or even launch attacks, but the swarm taste of bees is affected by many factors such as honey source and feed. For example, the swarm taste of bees during the high flow period will become very similar.

4, the worker bee manages the family

Bees are typical social insects. The colony is composed of a queen bee, hundreds of male bees, and tens or even tens of thousands of worker bees. Although the queen bee will also receive special care from worker bees, the queen bee is not in the colony In a leadership position, The true leader of the swarm is actually a large number of worker bees. For example, natural bee colony can be said to be the most important group activity of the bee colony, but the entire process of bee colony natural bee colony (including preparation and execution) is dominated by worker bees.

5, abnormal development

Honeybees are typical abnormal developmental insects. Type 3 bees (queen bees, male bees, and worker bees) all undergo four stages: eggs, larvae, pupae, and adult bees.The three types of bees in the egg stage are 3 days and enter the larval stage. The queen is 5 days, the male bees are 7 days, and the worker bees are 6 days. Enter the pupal period, 8 days for queen bee, 13 days for drone, 11 days for worker bee, In addition, the food of the three types of bees in the larval stage is also different. Among them, the royal queen can eat royal jelly for life, while the worker bees and drones can only eat royal jelly 3 days before the larval stage.