Bee husbandry Flashcards
Colony
One queen
Thousands of workers - female
Hundreds of drones - males in summer
Life cycle
Starts as egg born by queen, placed at the bottom of one of the walls
Develops into larva, pupa and adult
21 day cycle for workers and drones
16 day cycle for queens
The queen
Mates with drones at specific site - away from hive - stores sperm
Can lay up to 2000 eggs/day
Secretes pheromones
Can live up to 5 years but usually replaced after 1-2
Hatch year is marked with a spot by beekeeper
Can sting multiple times
Drones
Hundreds of drones in the summer
Don’t work in hive or forage
Sole purpose is to mate with queen
Die after mating and others are cast out
No sting
Drone larvae - longer incubation
Workers
Sterile females
Can be more than 60,000 per hive
Nurse, feed young + queen, clean hive, collect/use propolis to seal hive, collect water, nectar and pollen, make wax + honey, guard hive entrance
Produce one teaspoon of honey in entire life
Lifespan - 6 wks in summer, 6 months in winter
Foraging workers often work themselves to death
Husbandry
Hives only active between spring and autumn
Nectar = sugar solution = energy to store over the winter
Pollen = protein
Nectar = reward plants give to insects to attract them to spread pollen between plants
Cluster with queen in the middle to make sure she survives
Nucleus
Half the number of bees of a full hive
What triggers swarming?
Dilution - not enough of queen pheromone
Overcrowding
Bees determine that they have a chance to multiply and produce another colony
Beekeeping requirements
Registering bees
Regular inspections
Keeping records
Controlling swarming
Controlling disease, infestation + predators
Harvest honey
Prepping bees for winter
Inspections
Weekly in summer months
Look for eggs/healthy brood
Confirm presence of queen
Remove unwanted queen cells
Manipulate hive to prevent swarmig
Look for diseases/pests
Best carried out in good weather when many bees are flying
Honey harvesting
Manual
Cut comb
Mashing
Centrifuge
Notifiable diseases
Acarapisosis of honey bees
Foulbrood of honeybees
Small hive beetle infestation
Tropilaelaps infestation of honeybees
Varroosis of honeybees
