The
Observation Bee Hive
What to look for
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The
Queen Bee
She is the mother to all of the bees in the hive, her job is to
lay eggs. She is normally seen with an escort of about 15 bees encircling
her. You might see her inspecting the cells and then placing her
abdomen inside as she lays her egg. I have marked her with paint
to make her easier to spot and the colour to tell us what year she
was born. |
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Eggs
The tiny eggs can be seen at the bottom of the cell. They hatch
out after three days and then turn in to larvae |
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Larvae
The white and shiny larvae are fed by the nurse bees with a tiny
amount of royal jelly (bee milk) and then pollen
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Sealed
brood
These can be seen towards the centre of the hive where it is the
warmest, they contain the pupae that hatch out 2 I days from being
an egg
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Pollen
This can be seen on the legs of the foraging bees returning to the
hive, they then rub the pollen off their legs and push it in to
the cells more to the outside of the frame. This is stored ready
to feed to the developing larvae
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Worker
bee's
All worker bees are female and they are produced from the queen
bee's fertilised eggs. Their tasks are set out from the moment they
are born to the day that they die. In their short life (about six
weeks in the summer) their duties start off as : Cell cleaning,
brood incubation, feeding larvae, grooming and feeding the queen
bee, hive cleaning, comb building, honey ripening, guard duties,
air conditioning and after about three weeks they then become foraging
bees. Bees are 100% vegetarian/vegan and only collect four things,
water, nectar, pollen and propolis. When a worker bee has found
a source of food she tells the other foraging bees by doing the
“bee dance”. This lets the other bees know how to get
to the same location.
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Drones
These are the male bees and are developed in the hive from early
spring to late summer. They are produced from the queen bee's unfertilised
eggs. Their cells are larger than than worker bee's cells.
Their sole task is to mate with new virgin queens. They fly in to
“drone assembly areas” where there is a warm thermal
of air, they search for a virgin queen to mate with, after they
have mated they die. |
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Honey
This can be seen around the top corners of the frames. It is the
food of the honey bee. When it has been ripened it is capped over
with beeswax.
It started as nectar and then became honey. |
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Feeder
This is located at the left hand side of the base and is fIlled
with sugar syrup.
This ensures that the bee's have sufficient food stores and helps
to reduce the queen bee's egg laying rate to help reduce over crowding |
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Entrance
This is the access to and from the hive where the bees are free
to go out side foraging and go on cleansing flights. The square
tube is usually decorated with leaves, twigs, or flowers to enable
the bees to recognise their new entrance as soon possible on the
side of the marquee. The bees soon get used to their new surroundings. |
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Double
glazed and centrally heated
This 12v heater is connected to a car battery if it is too cold.
This prevents the brood from chilling.
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