When I was a student there was a subject in the curriculum that encompassed three completely different areas and that the only possible relationship could be in the economic aspect, that subject was Bird-Cuni and Beekeeping and was dictated by Professor Galindez, that was 55 years ago. His classes were a bit annoying with the exception of Apiculture, that is to say the world of the bees, because it was like that, the way Galindez described that exciting world, he moved us mentally to the beehive, where everything revolves around the Queen, the work of the Workers and the presence of the Drones or males, tremendous sluggish that are only there waiting for a nuptial flight, where only one can cover and fertilize the Queen, and then die in immense joy!
A few days ago, May 20th, I commemorated the World Bee Day, in a chat I made a comment about the importance of this insect in our ecosystems and how deserved they are if each one of us would honor them by writing or publishing about them.
The Bee
SOURCE: Zoologia General de Storer et al. by Oizaguirres
The bee, Apis mellifera, of the order Hymenoptera, i.e. an insect that can fly, has mouthparts adapted for sucking and chewing, undergoes a complete metamorphosis process, from a larva, through a pupal stage, to a flying adult.
It feeds on nectar and pollen and lives socially in a permanent colony formed by numerous individuals belonging to three castes or types mentioned above, the queen, the drones and the thousands of workers, or infertile slaves, who are responsible for building, preserving the hive, collecting food and feeding all the castes, taking care of the queen and young individuals.
Wild bees live in natural cavities in trees or among rocks, but this species has been partially domesticated by man who houses them in wooden boxes.
Colonies live in wax honeycombs containing small cells where they store honey, wax and care for the young.
What we call honey is the nectar of the flowers chemically transformed into a syrupy, hydrocarbon solution. They also collect pollen, which we call "bee bread" with which they feed their larvae.
And as a curious fact, bees collect resins from the buds of plants, which in the form of propolis are used to cement and varnish the cracks of the hive and protect themselves from wind and water, that is to say, they waterproof their house!
Let's talk about The Hive: (The house)
(Image by David Hablützel on Pixabay)
[SOURCE](https://pixabay.com/es/photos/miel-colmena-panal-cera-de-abejas-3216984/)
Each honeycomb of the hive is a vertical blanket of wax, attached to the top and sides of a cavity and lined with hexagonal cells....
There are 3 types of cells:
The 5 mm worker cells where workers brood and store pollen and honey.
The drone cells, about 6 mm, are used for storage and to raise the drones.
The large, vertical, peanut-shaped queen bristles, which are open at the bottom, are built in the lower part of the comb and are intended for queen rearing.
Bees are able to maintain or modify the internal climate of the hive by applying movements to their wings. If the internal temperature is low, as in the winter season, they are able to swarm together to produce heat, even if the outside temperature is quite low.
Reproduction:
The reproductive system in workers is rudimentary but highly developed in queens. A week after emergence, the young queen mates with a drone in the air, known as nuptial flight. The copulatory organs of the drone detach and remain in the queen's genital sac until it returns to the hive, where the worker bees remove it. The sperm received in the spermatheca should be used to fertilize all the eggs she will lay throughout her life.
The queen has the ability to control fertilization, so that unfertilized eggs produce males or drones and fertilized eggs produce females.
She can also control the number of eggs depending on the amount of nectar. When nectar is abundant, the queen can lay up to 1000 eggs per day, each of which she deposits at the bottom of a cell.
The incubation time or formation of each caste, from egg, through larva, pupa and adult is different, so for a queen is 16 days; the workers are 21 days and drones 24 days.
Nectar and Pollen Collection
When a worker bee discovers a place in the field where there is food, she fills her stomach with nectar, returns to the hive and deposits the collected nectar or feeds the young bees.
When you see a bee on the ground not moving, she is not necessarily dead, she is probably just dead from exhaustion from carrying a lot of pollen and needs to energize herself. So if you mix some water with a little sugar and let it drink it will give it the boost it needs to continue on its way. Today I found a powdered bee, I mixed some water with sugar, gave it a drink and watched it gulp and gulp, suddenly it came back to life. It was amazing! We have to take care of the bees, remember that the pollination of our flowers, fruits, vegetables and trees depends on them. In other words, our own life depends on them.
When you see a bee on the ground not moving, she is not necessarily dead, she is probably just dead from exhaustion from carrying a lot of pollen and needs to energize herself. So if you mix some water with a little sugar and let it drink it will give it the boost it needs to continue on its way. Today I found a powdered bee, I mixed some water with sugar, gave it a drink and watched it gulp and gulp, suddenly it came back to life. It was amazing! We have to take care of the bees, remember that the pollination of our flowers, fruits, vegetables and trees depends on them. In other words, our own life depends on them.
I feel internally satisfied to present this writing as a recognition to the bees, which are a symbol of hard work and cooperation in the food chain and balance of ecosystems.
Long live the bees, now more than ever we must preserve their existence.
Photographic support
Photo #1 Taken from my General Zoology text.
Photo #2 Taken from Pixabay
Video and other photos of my property
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Definitely, God in his infinite mercy thought of everything, of the bees, I like honey, but I didn't know their important work as a community and as providers of life...!!!!