From birth to death, each worker bee has a well-defined role, which changes as she ages. From the nurse bee to the forager, the productivity of bees is amazing. They do this with no infighting (unless you are a drone in the fall!), with ways to communicate bordering on the miraculous and a willingness to give everything for the benefit of the many. These characteristics and behaviors result in a society that is incredibly effective and efficient. They build their own home, they protect each other, they gather their own resources and they survive long, hard winters from these very same resources.
Let's learn about Bees.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
- Why bees are important, particularly their role in pollination.
- Where honey bees fit into the overall universe of bee species.
- The surprising genetics of bees, which help us also understand the roles of the drone, worker and queen bees.
- Understaning the life cycle of the honey bee.
- Lesson for us!
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Total Course Fee
Rs 0 - SessionsSelect
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Why Bees rock!
- Introduction
- They Feed The World
- They Shower Us With Color and Fill Our Table
- More...
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The Incredible Diversity of Bees
- Introduction
- A Quick Zoology Refresher
- Variety in Species
- More..
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The Anatomy of Bees
- Introduction
- The Head
- Thorax
- More..
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Honey Bee Genetics
- Clones with No Sons and Males with No Father
- Diploid and Haploid
- The Impact on Genes
- More..
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How Honey Bees Reproduce
- Introduction
- Reproduction of Bees Across the Species
- Overview of the Honey Bee Mating Process
- More..
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The Honey Bee Life Cycle
- Introduction
- But First, the Movie….
- The Honey Bee Life Cycle and Beekeeper Forensics
- More..
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Exploring the Process of Pollination
- What is Pollination?
- Why is Pollination Important?
- How Bees Find Flowers
- More..
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The Secrets of Honeycomb
- Introduction
- The Making of Beeswax
- Nectar and Honey
- More..
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How Do Bees Make Honey?
- The Sweet Taste of Natural Honey
- Do All Bees Make Honey?
- Why Do Bees Make Honey?
- More..
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Learn About Bees: Stage Summary
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On an average bee in its whole lifetime produces about one-tenth of a spoonful of honey.
It depends on the species (type) of bees. A colony of bees can have from few hundred individuals (in Apis florea) to upto 80,000 bees (Apis dorsata and Apis laboriosa). A colony of Apis cerana has around 20,000-25,000 bees and Apis mellifera about 50,000-60,000.
No. Only two species – the Asian honeybee, Apis cerana and the European Apis mellifera can be kept in the hives and managed for honey production and crop pollination. Other species make the nests in open and cannot be managed.
Honeybees make their nests with the beeswax. Beeswax is secreted by eight (four pairs) of wax glands located in the abdominal segments 4 to 7 of the 13-18 day old worker bees. Wax glands become active in 13-18 day old worker bees. To secrete 1 Kg of beeswax bees eat 10 kg of honey.
Beeswax is used ion more than 300 different products such as candles, creams, lip balms, soaps, beauty products, medicinal salves, paints, polishes etc. use beeswax.
A bee visiting the flowers of a crop becomes conditioned to that particular crop. During a single foraging trip, it visits a number of flowers of the same crop. While collecting nectar and pollen, the bee brushes against the anthers of a flower and some pollen grains are picked up by the hairs on its body and head. When the bee visits another flower some of the pollen grains on the bees’ body are captured by the sticky surface of a receptive stigma, thus effecting cross-pollination.