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About the Honey Bee
All About the Honey Bee
Some quick number facts about bees
| Beesper colony | 45,000 – 70,000 plus |
| Size of eggs | 1.6mm |
| Length of worker larva | 1.6mm |
| Size of adult worker honey bee | 1.2cm |
| Development period required for queen (egg to adult) | 16 Days |
| Development period required for drones and workers | 23 Days |
| Visits by nurse bees to each egg/larva until capped | 110,000 |
| Worker cells per inch of honeycomb | 5 |
| Worker cells per full depth frame | 680 |
| Eggs queen can lay in one day | 1500-2000 |
| Sperm queen receives during mating | 5-6 million |
| Number of flowers bees visit to fill their honey stomachs | 1000 |
| Flight speed on bee | 19 kph |
| Wing beats per second | 250 cycles per second |
| Wing beats, buzzing | 400-500 per second |
| Temperatures at which bees no longer fly | 10oC |
| Temperature at which bees start fanning | 35oC |
| Temperature at which bees cluster for brood warmth | 14oC |
| Temperature of the hive | 36oC |
| Number of nerve cells in bee brain | 860,000 |
| Age of the bee species | 19 million years |
Did you know that bees are the only insects that we take food from?
Honey bees are one of the most highly organised of all insect groups. Thousands live in one hive and work together to keep the hive going. Honey bees are known as social insects. Each hive has:
- A Queen – a female specially developed for egg-laying (as many as 2000 in one day)
- Workers – females bees that do the essential work of the hive like food gathering and nursing;
- Drones – male bees whose sole duty it is to mate with the queen. In autumn, the drones are driven out of the colony to die.
The nectar that the bees gather is made into honey in the bee’s “honey stomach”. Back in the hive it is stored in six-sided cells made of wax secreted from certain glands in the bee’s body. Pollen is stored in the hive for food over the autumn and winter. Beekeepers sometimes have to supply extra pollen to keep the hive going over the colder months. Bees also need water.
Not all flowers produce nectar; in fact the range of flowers attractive to bees is quite small. New Zealand’s main honey producing plant is white clover, but some of the native plants are also important.
Pollen is collected from most nectar producing plants, but good pollen sources are willows, gum trees, gorse, broom, flax and fruit trees. Some of the native forest trees are also visited by bees for pollen, include Kauri, Miro, Totara, Rimu and Kahikatea.
Why are bees important?
Bees are one of the most useful of all insects because they pollinate many of the plants we depend on. Bees are not the only pollinators, but they are the most important.
Varroa Mite
The varroa mite (varroa jacobsoni) is an external mite parasite of the common honey bee (apis mellifera) although its natural host is the Asian hive bee (apis cerana). New Zealand discovered the mite in 2000 near Auckland, and the mite is now throughout the North Island. In June 2006, the varroa mite was discovered near Nelson in the South Island.
The mite causes serious levels of colony mortality and beekeepers must control the mite numbers with a pesticide, applied before and after honey collection. It has added significant costs to the beekeeping industry with the extra maintenance now required and honey prices have risen as a result.
