Honey, I'm home!

By -



How sweet it is to be queen. Having hundreds of workers right at my tarsal claws. Imagine having everyone working just for you. The day-to-day for my workers starts bright and early with the sun and doesn't stop until the last drop of sunshine. Constantly moving from flowers, fruit trees, and much more to pollinate using resources like nectar and pollen.

Honey bees work relentlessly to collect enough nectar, care for their queen, protect the hive, keep it clean, and produce honey. The individual traits that each possesses along with their social cooperation skills make them outstanding workers. Not just the workers but many other important members belonging to each colony. The queen, of course, and drones. The queen is the hot shot of the party, reproducing more and more, sometimes over 3,000 eggs, daily! The drones are there to mate with the queen, nothing more. They don’t work and they can’t even sting you. Sadly, since the queen only needs to have mated once to reproduce the eggs she needs, many of the drones will pass away before they have the chance to fulfill their singular duty. 

Now how does the queen keep all these bees in line? Well, interestingly enough she uses her pheromones to send chemical signals to the other bees with can control their behaviors. Not only focusing on hive behavior but these pheromones can also control the mating behaviors, swarming, and ovary development in worker bees. Sort of like a spell to make someone act however you want them to. 



Honey bees do so much, what do we get from this? We can obtain things like honey, wax, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly. If you’re looking for some medicinal factors to enhance your health look here and here.

If you think about it, bees are wasps that decided to ditch the idea of predation. Of course, they’ll be closely related due to belonging to the same order, Hymenoptera. Adaptations that aid the collection of pollen are plumose hairs and hind legs that have broadened over time. Because of these changes, bees have moved into their own superfamily, Apoidea. This is where the honey bee’s scientific name comes in, Apis mellifera. Along with this, there are only four other species within the genus; A. dorsata, A. laboriosa, A. cerana, and A. florea.

Since I was old enough to lift the lids off, I have worked alongside my grandfather, father, and uncles as a beekeeper. As time goes on I realize how much there still is to learn about these amazing creatures. From the importance each member of the colony has to what rich products they can produce, there is so much knowledge for us to receive. Their pollination habits alone are responsible for so many of our fruits and vegetables today. Because they do so much within the pollination world, we consider these little guys to be nature’s greatest pollinators. Our farmers get a helping hand when these pollinators come to town. They enhance the yield of crops that grow. Without this effort we wouldn’t have the abundance of produce we have now. They are big role players in maintaining biodiversity and balancing the ecosystem. This is from pollinating such a wide range of plants allowing for more growth. Not only are these hymenopterans important ecologically but economically as well. Without honey bees, we would lose billions of dollars from the lack of pollination services. Many agricultural industries, such as fruit orchards, almond groves, and vegetable farms, depend on honey bee pollination to maintain profitable operations. 

Overall, we need to appreciate these tiny little creatures that have been placed here on Earth for a reason. Without them, our world would slowly fall and become so much less than what we realize we have.


References

Winston, M. L. (1995). The Biology of the honey bee. Harvard Univ. Press. Accessed 18 May 2023. 

Fao.org. Food Systems | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (n.d.). https://www.fao.org/food-systems/en/ 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mimicry: Being Masters of Disguise

By Anonymous -
Image
By: Cassidy Herbster, Cari Marota and Malik Mason  First to explain mimicry, it is copying another insect or inanimate object to aid in avoidance of predators and/or catching prey. There are two types of mimicry: batesian and mullerian. Batesian refers to when only the insect who is mimicking benefits while mullerian is when both the model and mimicking insect benefits. Most common way is with coloring. The colors of the bad tasting, venomous, or vicious insect is copied by a different insect to avoid being eaten by a predator, though the copy cat doesn't actually have that defense, it just appears so.  They also use coloring to blend in to catch prey or avoid being prey.  The insect being mimicked is called the model. Insects will not always only mimic other insects, but creatures such as arachnids or reptiles. Mimicry might not be for the whole lifetime of the insect. For example, the larvae of an insect could mimic a predator but grow up and not use mimicry as su...
Read more

Bear Lake Bog

By Anonymous -
Image
            A picture of a wetland bog from the Northern Hemisphere Source: https://infograph.venngage.com/p/176597/bog-biome               From lakeside dunes to old-growth white pine forests, Michigan is enriched with unique ecosystems. Although many of which have been claimed by society for agricultural and suburban means, portions of conserved land have been reserved for public recreation and admiration of wilderness. Wetland bogs are microcosms that serve as host to many unique organisms. While they used to be much more prevalent in the United States, they are still an important ecosystem in the US. This blog will expound on our class’s excursion to a bog named Bear Lake Bog.             Bear Lake Bog is located about six miles south of Au Sable campus and is found between the East Lakes and Bear Lake. We visited this bog on May 22, 2018. We broug...
Read more

Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder

By -
Image
            Beginning in the winter of 2006 to 2007, beekeepers began to notice a significant decline in losses of their hives, as high as 30 to 90 percent for no apparent reason ( Kaplan, 2012 ). The population of honeybees continues to decline today. The disappearance of these honey bees is now known as the colony collapse disorder (or CCD). This is concerning because honeybees play an important role in the pollination of plants, especially for agriculture but the loss of honeybees doesn’t stop there. The honey that honeybees make has significant medicinal properties. Honey provides antioxidants, relief to colds, and when applied to scrapes or wounds, it aids the healing process with its natural antibacterial and antimicrobial properties ( Shock, 2015 ). It promotes digestion. The loss of honeybees is not only a threat to biodiversity but the health of plants and people. Colony losses of managed ...
Read more