After reading this essay you will learn about you will learn about:- 1. Body Structure of Honey Bees 2. Species of Honey Bees 3. Castes of Honey Bees 4. Life Cycle of Honey Bees 5. Colony Organisation and Division of Labour 6. Seasonal Management of Honey Bee Colonies
Essay on the Body Structure of Honey Bees:
Body of honey bee is broadly divided into three parts namely head, thorax and abdomen. Head bears a pair of compound eyes, a pair of antennae and mouthparts. Thorax bears two pairs of wings and three pairs of legs. Female bees (queen and worker bees) have sting at the tip of abdomen and male bees lack sting. Queen bee generally uses its sting only against rival queen bees.
Essay on Species of Honey Bees:
There are four major honey bee species in India. Out of these, Apis dorsata (rock bee) and Apis florea (little bee) are wild species whereas Apis cerana (Indian bee) and Apis mellifera (European bee/Italian bee) are hive bees. Apis dorsata constructs single, very large comb on projections of water tanks, buildings, rocks and thick branches of trees.
This bee species is very aggressive. Apis florea is smaller than other three species and constructs single small (Palm size) comb in bushes, stacked sticks or thin twigs of trees.
Italian and Indian honey bees are reared in hives. In nature, they construct several parallel combs in cavities in trees or walls etc. In Punjab, only Italian bees are being reared.
Essay on Castes of Honey Bees:
There are three castes of honey bees in a colony. Every colony has one queen bee, a few drones (male bees) and thousands of worker bees (Fig 6.1). Compound eyes of worker bees are small and do not meet at top of their head. Their abdomen is conical.
Compound eyes of drones are very large and unite at top of their head. Their abdominal tip is roundish and hairy. Abdomen of queen bee is very long and tapering and does not have stripes. Wings of queen bee do not cover their abdomen completely.
Essay on the Life Cycle of Honey Bees:
Life cycle of honey bees is completed through four developmental stages, namely egg, larva, pupa and adult. Life cycle of drone, worker and queen bee is completed in 24, 21 and 16 days respectively.
Essay on Colony Organisation and Division of Labour:
Every colony of honey bees has a queen bee which is the mother of all bees in the colony. Queen bee can survive for 2-4 years queen should be replaced every year for getting higher honey production. New queen bee is golden brown and has long firm abdomen, whereas old queen bee has dark brown or black abdomen and is sluggish in movements.
Queen plays role of laying eggs and maintaining cohesion of the colony. A queen bee can lay up to 2000 eggs in a day. Fertilized eggs produce worker bees and unfertilized eggs produce drone bees.
A honey bee colony may have 8,000-80,000 bees. As the name indicated, almost all the hive duties are performed by worker bees. Their average life is 6 weeks. During the first three weeks of their life, workers perform the duty of cleaning the hive, feeding young ones and queen, and helping in storage of nectar and pollen in combs, construction of new combs, temperature regulation and guarding the hive. During the next three weeks worker bees forage out of hive to collect nectar, pollen, propolis and water.
A few hundred drone bees are produced by strong colonies only during the breeding season. They do not collect nectar and pollen. They fertilize newly produced queen bees by mating in the air outside the hive.
Essay on the Seasonal Management of Honey Bee Colonies:
a. Spring Season Management:
This is the best season for honey production and multiplication of honey bee colonies. Provide space to the colonies by providing combs or comb foundations. If the chamber is full to its capacity, provide super chamber with combs on the top of the full hive chamber. If space is not provided bees may swarm.
Swarming is a condition in which almost half of the bees leave the hive along with the older queen bee. To prevent this loss, provide combs, clip half of the one side wings of queen bee and destroy queen cells after examining at weekly interval. Ripe honey from mustard and eucalyptus may be extracted.
b. Summer Season Management:
To protect bees from heat, shift colonies to thick shade by daily moving the hives 2-3 feet towards shade. Improve ventilation of hives and provide source of water in the apiary. Extract sunflower and berseem honey.
c. Monsoon Season Management:
Cotton and khair is the important bee flora in this season. In most of the areas there is feed scarcity period. So provide honey bee colonies with sugar water solution (in 1:1 ratio) filled in feeder, empty com, tin etc.
Unite weak and queen less colonies. Prevent robbing of honey by strong colonies from weaker colonies. Wax moth, wasps and ants attack honey bee colonies during this season, so keep a check on these bee enemies.
d. Winter Season Management:
To protect bees from low temperature, shift honey bee colonies to sunshine by daily moving the hives 2-3 feet. Remove extra combs from the hives and provide winter packing. Wrap paddy straw in polythene or newspaper sheet and provide it as winter packing in the empty space within the hive. In case of scarcity of feed, provide sugar water solution (2:1 ratio, prepared by mixing sugar double in quantity than water) by filling in empty combs.