Life Lessons from Bees

An ancient society within our civilisation

Photo by Shelby Cohron on Unsplash

I have seen bees in my garden hundreds of time but a recent discussion made me decide to spend some time learning about them. I was really astounded by what I learnt so I thought I would share it with you as these creatures are truly amazing, and could teach us one or two things about ourselves also.

Why do bees make honey? First of all bees make honey as a food source to help them survive the winter whilst waiting for spring to arrive. They do not solely make it for humans to enjoy as some people think. In fact, honey is recognised as the only food that does not go off on our supermarket shelves due to its unique medicinal properties. Jars of honey has even been found in Egyptian tombs perfectly preserved, although I’m not saying I would recommend eating them.

During winter, the bees form a cluster and then flutter their wings and shiver constantly using the energy from the honey whilst surrounding the queen bee to protect her and all the bees on the inside of the core. The worker bees take turns being on the outside by regularly shifting positions to share the responsibility of being in the cold.

This continuous movement is how the bees keep the internal temperature of the core of the hive warm enough to survive the winter. If the bees run out of honey, the hive will die. This is why it is important to not extract too much honey from the hive when harvesting honey. The honeybees typically make an excess of honey, but the harvester needs to leave between 18kg for them to survive the winter.

What is nectar? Plants secrete nectar to attract pollinators. Nectar also protect plants against herbivores. Just a quick recap, the stamen is the male reproductive organ of the plant that contains the pollen grains, whilst the stigma is the female reproductive organ which contains the ovaries. A few plants can self-pollinate, but bees are particularly useful as vectors in cross-pollination between plants.

as busy as a bee

How hard do bees work? Bees are incredible hard working- “as busy as a bee”. A single forager bee may visit up to 50–100 flowers per trip from the hive and produce will approximately 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime, but through its dedication will ultimately help the colony survive. To make just one pound of honey, the entire colony will visit around 2 million flowers, over 35,000 km, (twice around the world) and this will be the life’s work of around 300 bees. Guess we all take honey for granted. Next time, you have a teaspoon of honey remember 12 bees spent their lives on it.

The social structure of the hive? One of the most intriguing aspects of bees is observing the numerous activities of the colony. Every bee has its own unique role, essential to the hive: from nurses to undertakers.

Each hive contains approximately 50,000 bees. There are three types of bee: the queen, the drones (males) and the worker bees (females), which are either forager or house bees. The worker bees, the females, are responsible for the hard graft to produce the honey.

What do the female forager bees do? There are 100 female forager bees for every male drone bee. The foragers travel to the nectar sources until their stomachs are full and may pick up pollen in the process which helps plants to displace their seeds.

How is honey made? The female forager bee regurgitates its nectar to another female house bee once it returns to the hive from its demanding journey. The house bees then pass the honey from one another whilst reducing the water content of the product using enzymes to about 20 %. The last bee regurgitates the nectar into a honeycomb cell and the bees flap their wings furiously to evaporate the water to form honey. Honey has an incredibly low water content, which creates its unique properties. When an individual cell is full of honey, the house bee caps the beeswax cell, thus sealing the honey into the honeycomb for later consumption. The beewax is produced by glands on the bee’s abdomen, almost the equivalent of human waste.

What is the role of the queen bee? The queen bee can survive up to four years, but of course will be replaced if the hive deems her to be ineffective. Yes, the hive can be a tough place at times.

The main function of the queen bee is to serve as a reproducer, which determines the success or failure of the colony. The queen bee can also produce pheromones to regulate social behavior and other characteristics of the hive. In her prime, the queen bee will lay about 2000 eggs a day, more than her own body weight. Each egg is about half the size of a grain of rice and take a few seconds to lay. The queen bee determines the gender of each of her eggs and whether it is fertilized or not. Other female bees can also eggs, but these eggs can only produce male drone bees.

After the eggs have turned into larvae they are fed royal jelly. The number of days that they are fed royal jelly will decide whether they are a worker or a queen. Queen are fed royal jelly all the way through the hatching process which is 16 days. In other words, you are what you eat. Who said diet was not important.

So what do the male drone bees actually do in the hive? The male drone bees remain in the hive. The drones are only responsible for mating with the queen. After mating, the drone normally quickly dies as it abdomen opens when his endophallus is removed (I have avoided the gruesome details). It’s lucky the male drone bees probably don’t realise that they will die before mating. Any surviving males are carried out by the females before winter begins as they have a pointless role and are just one more mouth to feed.

What happens when the colony gets overcrowded? When the colony gets overcrowded, the workers will start making preparations to swarm in order to split the colony into two or more distinct colonies. The current queen will be fed less to make her lighter and more able to fly. Workers will also start raising a new queen by feeding a chosen larva royal jelly. When the new queen is ready the swarm begins and the hive splits into two, one remaining where it was whilst the swarm will move to a new suitable place to build its new hive following missions from scout bees.

What is the difference between a honeybee and a bumblebee? Bumblebees do not produce a supply of honey to last the winter. The queen bumble bee instead buries herself underground during winter as the rest of its hive dies before winter, so she is left be herself.

Why does a bee die when it stings? This is not a suicide mechanism as commonly thought. Bees can survive after stinging other insects. Skin in mammals, such as in humans, is extremely tough which tears the abdomen of the bee and leaves behind the venom sac, so make sure to remove the stinger if you get stung as it continues to pump venom. Also be careful, because the stinger produces a pheromone which tells other bees to be more aggressive towards the perceived threat.

Do bees carry their dead out of the hive? Yes, this is called Necrophoresis and involves undertaker bees that carry the dead bodies of members of their colony from the hive.

How do bees make hives? Honeybees make hives in rock crevices, hollow trees and other areas that they believe are appropriate for their colony from scout missions. They construct hives by chewing wax until it becomes soft, then bonding large quantities of wax into the cells of a honeycomb.

Why is honeycomb hexagonal? Bees are either excellent at maths or this is natural selection at work. They have figured out that a hexagonal pattern creates the most efficient use of space, compared to other shapes such as circles. Not only do the honeycomb cells hold the bees’ honey stores and nectar, they also store pollen, water, and larvae.

How do bees survive the winter if they only live for six weeks and the queen bee does not lay eggs during winter? Worker bees typically have a life span of six weeks. However, winter bees have a different biology and can live up to six months, which is useful because the queen bee does not lay eggs during winter and so otherwise the colony would die out. When the queen does not lay eggs, the worker bees don’t transition into job mode and therefore have a different biology, known as dituinus bees. This allows them to live longer and thus survive the winter. In spring, these diutinus bees can then transform back into “job-mode” and resume their normal functions.

This is a summary of my research into bees. All of the above shows that we can achieve great things if we work and cooperate together, whilst society will take little consideration for our welfare if we are lazy, such as in the case of drone bees.

Every civilisation eventually comes to an end. The bee population is now in decline due to the human impact on the environment. In China, hand pollination is now a common practice and honey is fabricated without the use of bees. Steps must be taken to reverse our impact on the environment, because the human civilisation may be part of a greater network of interacting organisms then we think, and if we are not careful our civilisation may be reaching its end too.

Please comment if you have any other interesting facts about these amazing creatures or managed to learn something new during quarantine.

SOURCES:

1. https://www.thoughtco.com/how-honey-bees-keep-warm-winter-1968101
2. http://www.starthrowerfarm.com/aboutthebees.html#:~:text=%22%20To%20make%20one%20pound%20of,of%20honey%20in%20her%20lifetime.
3. https://www.perfectbee.com/learn-about-bees/the-science-of-bees/honey-bees-reproduce
4. https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/bee-faqs/honeybees-vs-bumblebees/
5. https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/why-do-bees-die-when-they-sting-you/
6. https://www.beverlybees.com/bring-out-yer-dead-the-undertaker-bees/
7. https://www.orkin.com/stinging-pests/bees/how-do-honeybees-make-hives
8. https://passthehoney.com/blogs/the-buzz/how-do-bees-make-honeycomb
9. https://dickinsoncountyconservationboard.com/2017/12/15/how-honeybees-survive-the-winter/