Bee-lieve It or Not
by Charlene Thornhill
Juniors Chair
Our junior garden club members remind me of "busy-bees"! They are always buzzing
here and there with so many involvements - but did you ever wonder why bees do
make honey?
We know that bees have been producing honey as they do today for at least 150
million years. Bees produce honey as food stores for the hive during the long
months of winter when flowers aren't blooming and therefore little or no nectar
is available to them. European honeybees, genus Apis Mellifera, produce such an
abundance of honey, far more than the hive can eat, that humans can harvest the
excess. For this reason, European honeybees can be found in beekeeper's hives
around the world!
Honeybees are social insects, with a marked division of labor between the
various types of bees in the colony. A colony of honeybees includes a queen,
drones and workers.
The queen, the largest bee in the colony, is the only sexually developed female
in the hive. A two-day-old larva is selected by the workers to be reared as the
queen. She will emerge from her cell 11 days later to mate in flight with
approximately 18 drone (male) bees. During this mating, she receives several
million sperm cells, which last her entire life span of nearly two years. The
queen starts to lay eggs about 10 days after mating. A productive queen can lay
3,000 eggs in a single day. All of her needs are taken care of - if she becomes
hungry or thirsty, workers will bring her food and water.
Drones are stout male bees that have no stingers. Drones do not collect food or
pollen from flowers. Their sole purpose is to mate with the queen. If the colony
is short on food, drones are often kicked out of the hive. Drones may live from
one to six months.
Workers, the smallest bees in the colony, are sexually undeveloped females. A
colony can have 50,000 to 60,000 workers. The life span of a worker bee varies
according to the time of year. Her life expectancy is approximately 28 to 35
days. Workers that are reared in September and October, however, can live
through the winter. Workers feed the queen and larvae, guard the hive entrance
and help to keep the live cool by fanning their wings. Worker bees also collect
nectar to make honey. In addition, honeybees produce wax comb. The comb is
composed of hexagonal cells, which have walls that are only 2/1000 inch thick,
but support 25 times their own weight. Honeybees' wings stroke 11,400 times per
minute, making their distinctive buzz.
To make one pound of honey, workers in a hive fly 55,000 miles and tap two
million flowers. In the course of her lifetime, a worker bee will produce 1/12th
of a teaspoon of honey.
Honeybees will communicate the location of food by doing a series of dances that
tells the other bees what direction to travel, how far and what the food source
is.
We welcome Mean Lean Planting Machine Junior Garden Club (Isn't that a GREAT
name) from Portsmouth in Scioto County in Region 10, sponsored by Portsmouth
Garden Club! Their leader is Anna Biggs, 36 Bellamy Road, Portsmouth, OH 45663;
phone: 740-858-2335. They have 20 members and are a class room club; the
students' ages range from 10 to 12 - which I think is a wonderful age for junior
garden clubs!
We also welcome the Lithopolis Junior Garden Club with seven members from Region
9. Kit Janitzki is their leader, 918 Dunvegan Circle, Pickerington OH 43147.
They are sponsored by Lithopolis Garden Club with Anna Parks as their president.
Keep up the good work!!! |
