Bees can actually get to "know" their owner, and recognise
him/her. Especially if kept in proximity to people and not
kept in isolation miles away from civilization.
The Queen of a colony will mate only once in her lifetime
of maybe several years, and lay around 3000 eggs a day
every season until she dies. The drone which fertilised the
Queen, himself fatherless, the product of an unimpregnated
egg, becomes the father of thousands upon thousands of
worker bees, and many fully developed Queens. After his one
mating he dies.
The Queen can choose to impregnate an egg or not at will.
An impregnated egg can be hatched by the workers, also at
will, as either an undeveloped female like themselves, or a
fully developed Queen to carry on the species.
Bees can in effect "speak" to each other, by means of their
antennae, or feelers. The antennae, by their motions, form
a language, in which wants, needs, and desires can be
communicated.
Although it is commonly believed that a bee will die once
it has stung, due to the barbs on it. In fact, if left
undisturbed, the bee can work it's sting out without
causing itself injury. Of course, the pain caused by the
sting usually results in the bee being attacked by it's
victim, not giving it enough time to withdraw undamaged.
A prolific Queen will, during her lifetime, lay one and a
half million eggs. If these were to be laid end to end, the
resulting line would stretch for one and threequarter
miles. A good Queen is able to lay on average two eggs a
minute for weeks on end. The lowest estimate would mean she
lays twice her own weight daily.
Propolis is a sticky, resinous substance gathered by bees
from pine, horse-chestnut, and other trees, as they carry
pollen on their hind legs. Propolis is used by the bees for
filling up cracks, excluding draughts, and making the hive
watertight.
Whilst bees are not normally aggresive, if they consider
themselves and the colony to be in danger they can, and
will, attack with fury. They have even been used as
weapons, and there are cases on record of whole regiments
being put to flight by having hives hurled at them. Riots
have also been subdued by the use of bees in this manner.
The egg from which a Queen is to be reared, like the egg
which is to produce a worker, hatches in three days. For
six days more it continues in it's larval state. It then
spins it's cocoon, is transformed into a nymph, and on the
sixteenth day from the laying of the egg, it emerges as a
perfect virgin Queen. The vacant cell is never used again,
and is usually cut down within a few hours.
Sometimes a colony will find it's Queen to be defective.
Maybe she is infertile from not mating soon enough, or from
a number of reasons only the bees themselves know. If that
is the case the colony will "ball" the Queen. That is, they
will entirely surround her, interlacing their bodies,
forming nothing less than a living prison. The queen is
imobilised and unable to move. She will be kept imprisoned
like this for up to twenty-four hours if necessary. Until
she dies of suffocation or hunger.
----------------------------------------------------
Chris Haycock has been fascinated by bees and the world of
beekeeping since falling into a ditch as a young boy and
getting badly stung. If you would like to know more about
bees and beekeeping it would probably be worthwhile to go
to:
http://www.secretsofbeekeeping.com
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