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Honey bees (lat. Apis mellifera) are a form of social bees of the family Apidae, subfamily Apinae.
Since ancient times people have bred bees for apiculture products: honey, wax, propolis, pollen, bee bread, royal jelly and bee venom. Along with the development of agriculture the role of bees as natural pollinators of plants (including the spread of agricultural pollination by bees in greenhouses) was also growing.
European honey bee was the third after Drosophila and mosquito insect whose genome is known. According to the study, this species originated in Africa and then migrated to Europe in two waves.
Bees are social insects living in large colonies. Each colony has one queen bee, a few hundred drones and up to 100 thousand worker bees.
One bee brings 40-50 mg of nectar in its honey stomach at a clip, but the longer it flies to it, the less nectar it brings into the hive. 70% of nectar is consumed per 3 km of flight, it "burns" in the bees body, offsetting its energy resources, that’s why the hives are put in close proximity to melliferous plants.
The main honey flow in most melliferous areas lasts from 8 to 20 days, and all the rest of the year is just a preparation to it. Collected nectar becomes honey after a rather laborious processing by bees, and "evaporating" from 40 to 70% of water; there are only 1,5-2 kg of honey left after processing 5 kg of nectar collected during a day.
To get a spoon of honey (30 g) in period of nectar flow 200 bees have to collect nectar during the whole day. Approximately the same number of bees have to receive nectar and process it in the hive. Besides a part of the bees ventilates the hive vigorously to faster evaporation of excess water from the nectar. And to seal honey in 75 cells the bees need to make one gram of wax.
Nectar of many plants consists of three types of sugars - sucrose, glucose and fructose. Their ratio in nectar of various plants is not the same. Honey, which bees produce from the nectar with a high content of glucose (rape, mustard, winter cress, sunflower, etc.), crystallizes quickly. If the nectar contains more fructose (bastard acacia, pea shrub, sweet chestnut), the honey crystallizes slowly. The maximum nectar is produced by melliferous plants when the air temperature is from 180 to 250 C. If the air temperature is above 38 degrees most of the plants cease to produce nectar. If the temperature drops production of nectar is reduced and some melliferous plants, such as lime and buckwheat, quit production of nectar completely.
If the bee colony weighs 3 kg only 40-50% of hive bees take part in the collection of nectar. In one flight these bees can bring 400 - 500 grams of nectar into the hive. The rest of the bees in such a colony are busy with rearing the brood, building new combs, receiving and processing of nectar into honey and other work in the hive.
The queen bee never stings a man, even when he hurts her. But when it meets its rival, it uses the sting furiously. The larva of the queen bee increases in size by 3000 times within 5 days of its development only, and the larva of the worker bee - by 1500 times.
A bee cell is the most rational geometric shape of the vessel in nature. Its construction requires minimum amount of materials (1,3 g wax per 100 bee cells), and as for structural solidity and capacity the cell is second to none, the size is observed with unprecedented accuracy: the angle of the cell is always equal to 109 * 28 'degrees.
Bees are champions of smell, they perceive and distinguish odors 1000 times stronger than a man, they smell the fragrance of flowers at a distance of more than 1 km.
Bees are endowed with the ability, yet mysterious to humans, to prolong their lives (in exceptional cases, to save the family) by 5-6 times.
Type: Arthropods
Class: Insects
Detachment: Hymenoptera
Superfamily: Bees
Family: Apidae
Genus: Apis
Type: European honey bee
Latin name: Apis mellifera Linnaeus
Honey bee
Honey bees (lat. Apis mellifera) are a form of social bees of the family Apidae, subfamily Apinae.
Since ancient times people have bred bees for apiculture products: honey, wax, propolis, pollen, bee bread, royal jelly and bee venom. Along with the development of agriculture the role of bees as natural pollinators of plants (including the spread of agricultural pollination by bees in greenhouses) was also growing.
European honey bee was the third after Drosophila and mosquito insect whose genome is known. According to the study, this species originated in Africa and then migrated to Europe in two waves.
Bees are social insects living in large colonies. Each colony has one queen bee, a few hundred drones and up to 100 thousand worker bees.
Do you know that…
To prepare 100 grams of honey, bees sometimes fly over 46,000 kilometers, it is the same as to fly around the globe along the equator, the worker bee manages to pollinate up to 7000 flowers a day.One bee brings 40-50 mg of nectar in its honey stomach at a clip, but the longer it flies to it, the less nectar it brings into the hive. 70% of nectar is consumed per 3 km of flight, it "burns" in the bees body, offsetting its energy resources, that’s why the hives are put in close proximity to melliferous plants.
The main honey flow in most melliferous areas lasts from 8 to 20 days, and all the rest of the year is just a preparation to it. Collected nectar becomes honey after a rather laborious processing by bees, and "evaporating" from 40 to 70% of water; there are only 1,5-2 kg of honey left after processing 5 kg of nectar collected during a day.
To get a spoon of honey (30 g) in period of nectar flow 200 bees have to collect nectar during the whole day. Approximately the same number of bees have to receive nectar and process it in the hive. Besides a part of the bees ventilates the hive vigorously to faster evaporation of excess water from the nectar. And to seal honey in 75 cells the bees need to make one gram of wax.
Nectar of many plants consists of three types of sugars - sucrose, glucose and fructose. Their ratio in nectar of various plants is not the same. Honey, which bees produce from the nectar with a high content of glucose (rape, mustard, winter cress, sunflower, etc.), crystallizes quickly. If the nectar contains more fructose (bastard acacia, pea shrub, sweet chestnut), the honey crystallizes slowly. The maximum nectar is produced by melliferous plants when the air temperature is from 180 to 250 C. If the air temperature is above 38 degrees most of the plants cease to produce nectar. If the temperature drops production of nectar is reduced and some melliferous plants, such as lime and buckwheat, quit production of nectar completely.
If the bee colony weighs 3 kg only 40-50% of hive bees take part in the collection of nectar. In one flight these bees can bring 400 - 500 grams of nectar into the hive. The rest of the bees in such a colony are busy with rearing the brood, building new combs, receiving and processing of nectar into honey and other work in the hive.
The queen bee never stings a man, even when he hurts her. But when it meets its rival, it uses the sting furiously. The larva of the queen bee increases in size by 3000 times within 5 days of its development only, and the larva of the worker bee - by 1500 times.
A bee cell is the most rational geometric shape of the vessel in nature. Its construction requires minimum amount of materials (1,3 g wax per 100 bee cells), and as for structural solidity and capacity the cell is second to none, the size is observed with unprecedented accuracy: the angle of the cell is always equal to 109 * 28 'degrees.
Bees are champions of smell, they perceive and distinguish odors 1000 times stronger than a man, they smell the fragrance of flowers at a distance of more than 1 km.
Bees are endowed with the ability, yet mysterious to humans, to prolong their lives (in exceptional cases, to save the family) by 5-6 times.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: AnimalsType: Arthropods
Class: Insects
Detachment: Hymenoptera
Superfamily: Bees
Family: Apidae
Genus: Apis
Type: European honey bee
Latin name: Apis mellifera Linnaeus
The article is based on the facts derived from The Free Encyclopedia - Wikipedia on conditions of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike.
