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Bees and Curiosities

BEES AND THEIR SOCIAL LIFE

Bees are a genus of insects from the Apidae family, known in the collective imagination both for the production of honey and for the terrible stings. The endemic races are different: particularly famous are the Carnic bees, particularly widespread in Northern Italy and Central Europe, and ligustic bees , widespread in Central Italy and known to professionals for the their ability to produce honey.

If you want to know more about bees and their social life, I invite you to read this article, as we will see the role of the queen, the workers and the drones in the hive

Since the focus of this article is on bees and their social life, we will analyze their rigorous organization. Let's assume that bees , industrious insects, live in colonies or families and each carries out its activity, based on well-defined tasks in relation to the caste to which they belong. In general, the social abilities of bees mean that it is by no means an exaggeration to consider the family as a superorganism in itself: in this case, the survival of the whole family rather than the single insect is at the center.

As we will see, to better define the discourse on bees and their social life, we must consider the three different castes that make up the population:

  • Queen Bees : there is one in colony. It lays eggs continuously (about 3,000 per day) to allow the replacement of bees. The queen stands out for her long build (between 18 mm and 22 mm). It all depends on her diet, which focuses on the intake of royal jelly, provided by the royal maids. After 3 or 4 years, as she loses her strength, the queen bee is replaced. Having said that we will mention the insemination phase and the nuptial flight when we talk about the drones, we will limit ourselves to saying that their sting is not poisonous, but it is a sort of hook with which it kills the drones after reproduction and the newly born queen bees, al in order to maintain control of the colony.
  • Worker Bees : their task is to carry on the survival of the colony, managing the nest, collecting pollen and nectar, and if necessary protecting it from external attacks. What differentiates the worker bees from the queen is the smaller build (on average 12 mm). If in the summer period, it lives 40 days due to the high workloads, in the winter period it can live up to 5 months. Their social role is closely linked to the age and needs of the family. Typically, after birth, she rests for several hours to recover from the strain of hatching the cell. By feeding, she becomes stronger. Between the fourth and sixth day, the worker bees organize the hive, after which they clean it together with the brood combs. Until the thirteenth day, they have the task of feeding the larvae, hatched by the eggs laid by the queen bee. But it is between the fourteenth and nineteenth days that the main task of the worker bees comes out, namely collecting pollen and nectar. During this time, they learn to fly. Only from the twentieth to the fortieth day, the worker bees become foragers: the frequency of flights increases and once the areas rich in flowers are found, the collection of pollen and nectar begins, which will be transformed into honey.
  • Fuchi: they are none other than the male bees, whose primary task is to inseminate the queen bee during the nuptial flight. Clouds of males chase the queen to keep the species going. However, since the endophalus (the reproductive organ) remains hooked to the body of the queen bee, the subsequent detachment leads first to the detachment of their entrails and finally to death. Drones hatch from eggs larger than bees. What differentiates drones from bees is the presence of a heavier body covered with hair and a tongue, capable only of collecting nectar. Also, drones do not have a stinger. Generally speaking, in a hive there are on average between 2,000 and 4,000 drones that feed on honey from combs or with pollen collected from worker bees . Among the other tasks of the drones, there is also that of keeping the hive in order. Now, you know more about bees and their social life.