Bee

Bees are small flying insects closely related to wasps and ants. They are known for their role in pollination and in production of honey bee, for producing honey and beeswax.

Bees are known for their social life and great economic importance. The place they live is called bee hive. They can live in both natural and artificial hive. Bee have three classifications among them according to their role:

First one is Workers: They forms the majority within a hive and their capacities are -cleaner, nurse, builders and architects, technician, soldier and porter.

Second one is Drones: They are slightly larger than the workers; noisy and idle; comes out of the hive only at the time of nuptial flight.

Last one is Queen Bee: They are very large with a tapering abdomen; general¬ly a single matured queen is present in each hive; responsible for the laying of eggs.

It has now been clearly demons¬trated that honey-bees are skillful of passing information, regarding the location of food. They do that by a peculiar dancing they not only indicate the direction but also give an approximate measurement of the dis¬tance.

Importance of Honey bees:

Honey bees have the following importance.

(i) Honey:

Honey is a sweet, viscous edible fluid and is natural valuable tonic. Chemical composition of honey has ash, minerals, vitamins, pantothenic acid, biotin, pyridoxine, choline, ascorbic acid, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin, Sugars , Water (60 – 80%), and Amino acids, enzymes. Honey also contains pollen. A number of Ayurvedic medicines are taken with honey.

(ii) Bee wax:

Bee wax is made of secretion of worker bees’ abdominal glands. It is a product of industrial importance. It is used in the manufacture of many items including cosmetics, shaving cream, face cream, ointments, plasters, carbon papers, pencils, electric goods, etc.

(iii) Pollination:

The honey bees are pollinators of many crop species such as sunflower, Brassica, apple and pear.

(iv) Medicinal value:

It is used in the treatment of Diphtheria and some other dangerous diseases. The venom of stings of honey bees has been used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and snake bite.

Bee Diseases:Honey bees suffer from Nosema disease caused by a sporozoan Nosema apis, paralysis dysentery and acarine disease caused by a parasitic mite, Acarapis woodi.

Facts about honey bees

1. Honey bees are super-important pollinators for flowers, fruits and vegetables.

2. Honey bees live in hives (or colonies).

3. If the queen bee dies, workers will create a new queen by selecting a young larva (the newly hatched baby insects) and feeding it a special food called “royal jelly“. This enables the larva to develop into a fertile queen.

4. Honey bees are fab flyers. They fly at a speed of around 25km per hour and beat their wings 200 times per second!

5. Each bee has 170 odorant receptors, which means they have one serious sense of smell! They use this to communicate within the hive and to recognize different types of flowers when looking for food.

6. The queen can live up to five years. She is busiest in the summer months, when she can lay up to 2,500 eggs a day!

Sadly, over the past 15 years, colonies of bees have been disappearing, and the reason remains unknown. Referred to as ‘colony collapse disorder’, billions of Honey bees across the world are leaving their hives, never to return. In some regions, up to 90% of bees have disappeared!

Image Source: Wikipedia

Reference:

1.     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee

2.     https://www.britannica.com/animal/bee

3.     https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bees

4.     https://www.natgeokids.com/za/discover/animals/insects/honey-bees/

5.     https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/honey-bees-are-struggling-with-their-own-pandemic/