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Bees are Important

Bees are the gardener’s friend, They pollinate the plants so the ecosystem which sustains future reproduction of all life. 

We are the benefactors which  are graced with food and flowers, Oh did I forget Honey? They do this by transferring pollen between flowering plants, to keep the cycle of life going. I  cannot emphasize enough how important these little creatures are.

Life cycle of the ‘Honey Bee’

Honey bees have four different cycles. Egg, larva, pupa and adult. The Life cycle takes

  • 24 days for the male drone bee
  • 21 days for the female worker bee
  • 16 days for the queen. 

Honey is the bees food

It takes the nectar from around two million flowers for the hive to produce just one pound of honey. I know beekeepers who are greedy when collecting the honey from hives. This endangers the hive as the honey bees need this honey to survive the winter.  

How much honey does a honey bee produce?

An individual bee produces a tiny amount of honey this is why the combined effort of an entire hive is necessary. A single honey bee is capable of producing only .4ml in its entire lifetime that’s just 1/12th of a teaspoon.

How many bees in one hive

A bee hive can contain a colony of as many as 20,000 to 60,000 bees, it’s a good job these flatmates get on, or do they. Male drone bees are used? Yes they have one purpose and that is to mate with the queen which is no love affair. They can mate up to 10 times in which they die by a ripped abdomen and if not they are evicted by the females. Bee colonies are dominated by Feminists? But these feminist worker bees exist purely for the queen and are rewarded with a short life of only 6 weeks.

The queen bee is a hussy!

The queen can produce 2500 eggs every single day during the summer season which will need fertilising by the drone bees. No mean feat and I’m sure my husband would want to be a part of that sex party!

An adult bee lives between 122 to 152 days. Not very long considering how these bumbling bees secure our futures. 

Amazingly the Queen bee can live up to 5 years and mate several times in that time.

Are Bees Sexist

As a female I am happy that sexist bees are politically correct in their own political hierarchy. The Queen bee is capable of deciding the sex of the bee larvae. They do this by fertilising the eggs. If the queen decides that she is low on breeding partners or drone bees she does by not fertilising the egg as this will produce a male drone. But if the queen is feeling a little dominated by the male bee she may decide that the eggs need fertilising with the stored sperm. Fertilised eggs develop into female worker bees. The Queen is in control of the balance of male and female bees.

Are bees aggressive? 

Absolutely not, Bees are our friends they only sting as a defence mechanism or to protect their hive. The sting isn’t too bad any way!

Bee stings are a death sentence?

Bees do not often sting you unless they feel they are in danger! Waving your arms about to shoo them away could leave you stung as they don’t see it as your defence mechanism but as an attack. The likelihood you become stung by bees is unlikely! if they decide you should get stung by a Kamikaze bee it will die within a few minutes of stinging you. The bee dies because the sting rips away from the bee’s abdomen causing it’s death.

Removing the bee sting

If you are stung you will have to remove the sting, and put hydrocodone onto the sting. Be careful though as bee stings have a barbed needle which is difficult to remove. If you’re not careful you will squeeze the poison sack pumping more poison into the puncture wound. 

Life cycle

The ladybird has 4 stages: egg, larvae, pupae than an adult ladybird. The fertilisation of the egg is done inside the ladybird. This was very surprising to me but a ladybird can live up to 2 years.

Helping the Bees 

It is good to leave water out for bee’s, especially in hot weather. You can do this by putting stones or small rocks into a bowl, then add water, Bee’s need stones into the bowel as they can easily drown if not.

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