Introduction to Honey bees and their Classification

complete introduction to Honey Bees and their mode of working

1. Presented by: Muhammad Anas Rasool Roll NO: 07 B.Sc.(Hons) Agriculture – 1 st Semester Department of Agriculture Submitted to: Dr. Mubasher Rauf 15-Jul-18 1

2. HONEY BEE SOCIAL-INSECTS RELATED TO FAMILY APIDAE AND GENUS APIS, MOSTLY FOUND IN TROPICAL AREAS. Kingdom Animalia Phylum Arthropoda Class Insecta Order Hymenoptera Family Apidae Genus Apis 2

3. HONEY BEE Honey bees measure about 15 mm long and are light brown in color. Honey bees are usually oval-shaped creatures. Apis millifera is most important to humans. Bees live in colonies or hives. Consist of two pair of wings, five eyes (3 simple & 2 compound). Awarded with great blessings of GOD (angle calculating, sharp mind, discipline). They make hive from their wax that is released from wax glands in abdominal cavity. Hive consists of many hexagonal cells in which eggs, pollen, nectar and honey is kept. 3

4. HONEY BEE PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT: When the queen lays an egg, it becomes attached to the cell by a mucous strand. During the first stage of development, the digestive system, nervous system and outer covering are formed. After three days, the eggs will hatch into larvae, which will be fed by worker honey bees with honey, royal jelly and other liquids from plants. These honey bee larvae have no legs, eyes, antennae or wings; they resemble a grain of rice with a small mouth. They will eat and grow into adult workers, queens or drones. 4

5. HONEY BEE Bees are divided into 3 main types: Queen bee (female) Worker bees (female) Drone bees (males) 5

6. HONEY BEE 1- QUEEN BEE: They mate with many drone bees of another hive one time in their life, collects about 100 millions of sperms but uses few sperms for laying. Their egg is about 1-1.5 mm in size. In oviduct of queen bee, it is decided that which egg is to be fertilized or not, fertilized eggs then develop into worker bees and unfertilized eggs develop into drone bees (male bees). They lays eggs (about 2,000/day), after hatching of eggs one larvae (pupa) is supplied with royal jelly (in its entire life) and nectar and is cared very carefully, then it becomes a queen bee after 14 days. It is only one in a hive and has large size as compared to others and manage & organize whole hive. Lives for many years (can live for 5 years). 6

7. HONEY BEE 2- WORKER BEES: They are developed from fertilized eggs and become mature after 21 days. They have a lot of work to do in which guarding, shaping & organizing of hive and looking after of new bees is included. Some of them (foragers) collect nectar and pollens from flowers and causes pollination. Can live for 40 days in summer as they have a lot of work in those days while can live for about 3 months in winter when there is very little work to do as compared to summer. Sometime lay eggs (infertile) in summer. Guard hive by stinging intruders & their stinger comes out of body in this process and they die, while queen bee can sting for many times. 7

8. HONEY BEE 3- DRONE BEES: Drones are male bees, develop from infertile eggs and become mature in 24 days. They have only one duty in their life cycle that is to mate with queen bees, after mating the queen they die. If they luckily don’t die then they are ejected from nest as they have performed their duty and now they are for no purpose in hive. In winter season they are also ejected from nest by queen as there is no mating activity in summer season. 8

9. HONEY BEE MODES OF COMMUNICATION They communicate by dance or hormones : There are two main types of honey bee dances: round dance and waggle dance. Round dance, as the name indicates, is a movement in a circle. This is used to indicate the food source is less than 50 meters from the nest. Waggle dance is a special pattern while the bee waggles its abdomen and is used for food located at a distance of more than 150 meters. Exact distance can be communicated by duration of the dance. A longer dance indicates a great distance. The dancing worker bee also can indicate direction with the waggle dance and will move in reference to the sun’s vertical position. They also release pheromone hormones (scents), by smelling it a bee can identify a queen, drone, invader or another worker bee. 9

10. HONEY BEE PRODUCTS: HONEY, WAX & PROPOLIS. References : orkin.com & wikipedia.com 10