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Show ‘ , { produce a single teaspoon of honey. Honeybees use a unique behavior to communicate the location of food to other honeybees in its colony. After spotting an abundant food source, they return to the hive and perform a dance. Their movements indicate the direction SPECIES OF THE MONTH Honeybees Pollinators of the World By Pam Poulson Manager of Community Education Red Butte Garden he sun-toasted man stepped back from the irrigation ditch to lean on his shovel and wipe his sweaty forehead with a ragged blue bandanna. Precious desert water inched down the dry furrows toward neat rows of apple trees. For the first time in 17 years, he hadn't had to thin the blossoms or the fruit The Malathion insecticide overspray from Hansen’s alfalfa had killed most from the bee boxes of the honeybees he had shipped in from Lehi His hope of rescue by wild honeybees had been quashed when an unexpected rain had blown in from the northwest - at peak blossoming. This year’s crop would be adequate, but not great He'd have to pick up some more bee boxes next April Honeybees are the primary pollina tors of the world, Many plants - and all humans - are completely dependent upon them for this service Throughout spring and summer, worker honeybees collect nectar and pollen to produce honey. How do honeybees spot a good honey flower among all the other plants around? The same way we spot a McDonald’s sign among all the other signs: Flowers attract honeybees by color, fragrance and nectar. Honeybees are particularly attracted to ultraviolet light, detected by their compound eyes and sweet fraerance sensed by their antennae Once at the flower, the shape of the blossom, dots, stripes or a shaded area near the center further guides honeybees to the nectar. To reach the tasty nectar, honeybees and distance of the food. must crawl over the pistil and anthers to reach their long into the tongues flower’s so, they heart. In doing deposit and pick up pollen and transfer it from flower to flower, accommodating fertilization and making fruit and seed production possible. Honeybees pollinate more than 100 commercially grown crops The nectar is carried back to the hive in the workerbees’ crops (stomachs). Enzymes in the crops turn nectar into a honey-like substance. This substance is regurgitated into storage cells in the hive, where it is fanned by the other workers to evaporate excess water. The result is honey. Honeybees make approximately 60,000 trips to gather enough nectar to Honey Bee, Apis mellifera Description: Black or brown with white, yellow gold or orange bands. Queens, dark and long bodied; drones larger than workers, no stinger; workers orange banded Total Length: Queen, 4/5 inch; drones, 3/4 inch; work- ers, 3/5 inch. | Eyes: Compound and sensitive to ultraviolet light. Can’t see red. What it could be confused with: Any of 20,000 other bee species Range and distribution: Thought to have originated in India, but now found throughout the world wherever flowers grow. Food: Nectar, pollen and honey. Territory: Up to 8 miles radius from the hive. Life span: Queen, up to 7 years; drones, 4-5 weeks; workers 8 weeks. Nest: Honeybees and bumblebees are the only social honeybees. The other 3,500 North American honeybee species are solitary, with most nesting underground or in wood or plant stems. Utah’s 950 species of native wild honeybees build their nests inside hollow trees, under cliff overhangs or in cave entrances. Most domestic honeybees nest in artificial hives provided by beekeepers. The bustling activity of a honeybee hive seems random and confusing, but can be broken down into a simple series of ranks and tasks. Three different types of honeybees perform all the tasks within a hive: the queen, female workers and male drones. The queen bee regulates the nest’s activity. Each day of her seven year life she will lay up to 1 500 eggs. Fertilized hives provided by beekeepers. Wild honeybees nest inside old hollow trees, under cliff overhangs or in cave entrances. Where to see one: Watch showy flowers on sunny, windless days. _ Sting: The honeybee’s sting is a powerful method of defense. ~ When threatened, it pierces its vicLESS tim with its barbed stinger, which "~ is attached to the bee’s venom gland. As the bee struggles to free itself from its victim, its lower abdomen tears away, causing death. Note: Honeybees are not interested in humans until struck at or startled by sudden movements. Simply move away slow- ly with your head down. Colors an scents attract honeybees. Wear subdued colors, not bright colors or black. Don’t wear perfumes, hair sprays, lotions, and other scented items that might attract insects. Wear long sleeves and pants. @ Most honeybees nest in artificial the Main Street eggs develop into a female workerbees; unfertilized eggs develo; into male drones. The eggs hatch in three days. Larvae are fed nutritious royal jelly. After several days, larval bees are startA larva fed ed on honey and pollen. solely on royal jelly will develop into a queen bee. All honey and pollen collecting is done by female workerbees. For the first three weeks of a workerbee’s life she produces wax and royal jelly to feed the larvae and the queen. From days 16 to 20, she receives and stores nectar and pollen. She also cleans and hive repairs the and guards the entrance. After three weeks she scouts for and collects pollen and nectar for their remaining four or five weeks of her life. Male drone honeybees serve only one function: to be mates of the queen and fertilize her eggs. In autumn, drones are forced out of the hive. The queen dominates the colony by secreting orpheromone. When female workers are exposed to orpheromone they are prevented from sexually maturing to queen bees. When the nest becomes too crowded to be affected by the queen’s pheromones, or when she grows too old, the queen leaves the nest and a new queen emerges in the absence of orpheromone. Honeybees have adapted to maintain elevated body temperatures all winter long by clustering. As soon temperatures dip below 64 degrees F., the honeybee colony’s inhabitants gather together into a compact huddle The outer layers of the huddle are formed by densely packed honeybees, oriented with heads inward. Honeybees in the core of the cluster are loosely packed, and.in brief bursts of up to 5 minutes, these honeybees flap their wings, generating body temperatures up to 100 degrees F. This strategy requires an enormous amount of energy - 40 pounds of honey to survive the winter. @ -MASSAGE 649-0030 MKCae ioe PAGE 14 APRIL 1997 Deanna Affleck, THE aa hore ont 730 itaa p-m. 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