| Show rv 1 1 1 life of the LV IN honeybee e 4 tw 1 X V 41 1 R flow germans protect bee hives I 1 i how the honey bee lives and performs his very important duties prepared Prep ired by national geographic society washington Wh ington D C service ITTLE does the average L LITTLE layman know of the active life of the honey bee which in summer is conspicuous fly hying ing from flower to flower bearing pollen that plants may blossom and bear fruit in season the young queen bee a few days after leaving the hive in which she has been born selects a day for her wedding I 1 flight she usually chooses a clear warm quiet day because her honeymoon is short and she must make the most of it only when she leaves the hive with a swarm probably a year hence will she have another occasion to fly mating always takes place on the wing and it if conditions are such that the queen cannot fly she will die a virgin the strongest drone is her mate for the queen is is a good flyer and the weak are thus eliminated in this wise provision to maintain the strength and vigor of the race before the queen has had time to return to the hive after the mating flight the drone will have fallen to th the e earth dead because of her specialized duties and the fact that she does not engage in outside work and is not subject to the hazards of weather and enemies that might prey upon her the queen may live to the ripe old age agent 10 of three or four years when she becomes too old or when she can no longer produce queen and worker bees or it if she becomes accidentally ciden ci taUy crippled the bees will raise another queen to replace her and for a while both mother and daughter may work side by side in the hive but this arrangement does not last long the old queen will shortly disappear the marked differences between the queen and worker bee both of whom come from the same kind of fertilized egg have already been mentioned their difference in behavior is even more pronounced the worker bee is armed with a straight sting the end of which is barbed like a harpoon when a worker bee stings it cannot disengage its sting the violent effort of tearing itself loose from the well anchored sting so severely damages the tissue of its body that it dies within a few minutes normally it can sting only once when rival queens battle the sting of the queen instead of being straight and barbed is smooth and curved it is constructed so that it can aas easily ily be withdrawn when she uses it the queen seemingly does not realize that she possesses this very effective weapon she may be picked up and handled as harmlessly as a kitten it if the queen gets into the wrong hive in returning from her mating flight a royal battle is sure to ensue and the two queens fight it out until death comes to the weaker it if the queen used her sting indiscriminately ly she might easily lose her life in meeting an enem enemy y with which she could not cope it if she were being handled by her keeper and attempted to free herself by stinging him he might instinctively retaliate by crushing her fir frail ail body should he do so it would jeopardize the future life of the colony I 1 especially it if there were no larvae in the hive from which a successor could be raised for her protection therefore she depends upon her own daughters or sister workers who far putnum outnumber ber her and whose sacrifice is not so fatal to the of the colony the drone usually is regarded as a lazy individual but after au all he is the father and is entitled to certain respect he gathers no food nor does he help defend the family he has baa no tools to collect sweets nor has he a sting to defend even him veil during his brief exis existence tente however he has certain privileges not accorded his sisters he can safely visit neighboring colonies neither workers nor queens are ac cepter in other hives but during the breeding season drones are allowed to come and go as they please know one another by smell when the breeding season is is over and the honey flow comes to a close the bees become more economical with their food supply which must carry them through the long cold winter then they drive all the drones from the hives thus dooming them to perish soon for lack ot of food and shelter the person who can recall the names and faces of several hundred red acquaintances is unusual yet in in a family of individuals the bee instantly recognizes every rr member ember it is evident that recognition is not through the sense of sight instead it is effected by the more highly developed sense of smell every colony has a distinctive family odor different from that of every other colony it if a strange bee attempts to enter a hive the guards at the entrance detect its alien odor and drive it away when a colony is divided i nto into two parts the parts placed in separate hives and given queens that are sisters the bees in each half develop different odors within a weeks time they become total strangers to each other were the halves united again the bees would disregard the existence of any relationship relation relationship shi P it sometimes happens that a beekeeper unites two or more colonies which separately are too weak to produce a crop or to survive a hard winter the usual method is to place one hive on top of the other inserting a sheet of newspaper between them the bees from both sides gnaw small holes in the paper I 1 and in doing so they rub noses but the holes at first are not large enough for the bees on either side to engage in combat the apertures aper tures permit the mingling of the odors of the two units so that by the time the holes are large enough for the bees to pass through the two parts have an identical odor thus union takes place peacefully it if it becomes necessary to place a new queen in a colony it is essential that she be properly introduced the old queen is removed at least an hour before the newcomer is presented in this interval the colony discovers that it is is and it may start constructing ting new queen cells even though the colony desires a queen it would not do to release the usurper because her strange odor would antagonize the bees and endanger her life she is placed in a wire cage to protect her from assaults although her new subjects would kill her were she suddenly released they feed her by inserting their tongues through the meshes of the wire blast store food for winter honeybees help perpetuate their race by their insatiable desire to gather nectar unlike bumblebees hornets yellow jackets and wasps honeybees cannot live from hand to mouth they must store enough food during the summer to keep the colony alive throughout the winter of the four other insects just mentioned all the individuals in each colony die at the approach of winter except the young mated queens and these simply crawl into protected places where they hibernate during this period they require no food among honeybees only the drones die in the fall the queen 8 and rid the workers live and are semi active throughout the winter it is important therefore to gather enough food during the summer to ms maintain intrain the colony during seasons when insect activity largely ceases at the end of the swarming season which coincides with the height of the breeding season the queen quee n lays fewer and fewer eggs until fall fa I 1 1 when the rearing of the brood entirely ceases cold weather has overtaken the colony by this time imposing changes in its organization to cope with low temperatures individual honeybees die of chill at temperatures well above freezing in fact they seldom fly by when th the tem T er R ture i is 9 lower than 45 degrees fahrenheit |
