Chapter 3: Honey Bee

A natural bee hive attached to a tree branch and a framed hive used in beekeeping.

• A bee is an insect belonging to phylum Arthropoda.
• Honey bees are social insects; they live in large colonies inside a hive.
• There are three types of honey bees in a hive: queen, worker and drone.
• There is a high degree of understanding, discipline and division of labour among members of the colony.
• Honey bees collect pollen and nectar to make honey.

• Head bears a pair of compound eyes, a pair of antennae and mouth parts.
• Antennae help detect surrounding stimuli; compound eyes can see without rotating the head.
• Thorax consists of three segments, each bearing a pair of jointed legs - this is why bees are placed in phylum Arthropoda.
• The first two segments of the thorax give rise to a pair of wings each, which help bees fly long distances.
• Abdomen consists of 9 segments, but only 6 segments are prominent in adult females and 7 segments in adult males.

Queen bee, drone bee and worker bee shown side by side to compare their body structure.

• Largest sized and elongated bee in the hive; head is smaller and rounded compared to others.
• Proboscis is short and covered with hairs; sting is present at the end of the abdomen.
• Generally only one queen is present in a hive.
• Main function is to lay eggs and control the activities of all bees in the hive according to the situation.
• Produces a special scented substance called pheromone, used to attract males for mating, for communication, and to help bees find the location of the hive.
• Lives the longest in the hive, about 2-5 years.
• A new queen is formed by worker bees feeding a larva continuously with royal jelly.

• Smaller than the queen but larger, blackish and hairier than the worker bee.
• Does not have a sting, pollen basket, or wax-producing glands.
• The laziest bee in the hive; it is even fed by worker bees.
• Its main function is to fertilize the queen bee.
• Drones are haploid, having only 16 chromosomes, while the queen and worker are diploid, having 32 chromosomes.
• Drones develop from unfertilized eggs through a process called parthenogenesis.
• Drones survive for about two months only, and die after mating.

• Smallest sized bee in the hive; has chewing and lapping type mouthparts.
• Extremely hardworking; legs are densely covered with hair and possess pollen baskets used to collect and transport pollen to the hive.
• Functions include collecting nectar, constructing the hive, nursing young ones, and protecting the hive.
• About 20,000 to 80,000 worker bees can be found in a single hive.
• Life span of worker bees is about 6 weeks to 6 months.

Life cycle diagram of honey bee showing the sequence adult to egg to larva to pupa and back to adult.

• Eggs of honey bee are white and elongated.
• Each egg lies erect within the brood cell on the first day, slanted on the second day, and horizontal on the third day.
• The queen lays eggs in drone cells to make drones, queen cells to make queens, and worker cells to make workers.
• The queen can lay up to 3,000 eggs per day under favourable conditions; egg size ranges from 1 mm to 1.5 mm.
• There are two types of eggs: fertilized and unfertilized. Fertilized eggs develop into queen and worker bees; drones develop from unfertilized eggs.
• The duration of the egg stage is three days for all types of bees.

• After three days, eggs hatch into larvae; the larva actively feeds during this stage.
• Larval stage lasts about 5.5 days for queens, about 6 days for workers, and about 7 days for drones.
• Larvae of future queens and drones are larger than larvae of future workers.
• Queen and worker bees are both females developed from fertilized eggs; whether a larva develops into a queen or a worker depends on the type of food fed to it.
• All larvae are fed royal jelly for the first three days. After that, larvae that will become queens continuously feed on nutritious royal jelly, while larvae of future workers and drones feed on beebread (a mixture of honey and pollen).
• The larva moults five times; since the food fed differs, the duration of development also differs among bee types.

• The pupa is an inactive phase of the life cycle - it does not feed or move, but structural changes are taking place inside it.
• In this phase, three pairs of legs, wings and mouthparts are developed.
• The pupal stage lasts 8 days for the queen, 12 days for the worker, and 14 days for the drone.

• After many changes, the pupa transforms into an adult.
• The mandibles of the newly formed adult bee chew through the wax layer sealing the brood cell and the bee emerges out.
• Worker bees start helping others immediately after emerging - caring for the brood cell, feeding larvae, and protecting the hive.

Developmental stages of a bee shown side by side inside brood cells - egg, larva, pupa and adult - with the number of days for each stage.

• When the new queen becomes adult, she leaves for the nuptial flight (mating flight), usually in the evening.
• When the queen leaves the hive, she is followed by a group of drones; the queen mates with many drones during the flight.
• After mating, drones die because their genital organs are forcibly pulled out during mating.
• The queen receives sperm from drones and stores it in structures in her body called spermathecae; this sperm is used to fertilize millions of eggs over her lifetime.
• After 2-3 days of mating, the queen bee starts laying eggs in the brood cells.

• The hardworking nature, division of work, and high level of discipline among honey bees encourage various positive social behaviours in humans.
• Highly nutritious honey produced by bees is used in Ayurvedic medicine, candy, cake, bread, etc.
• While sucking nectar from flowers, bees carry out pollination, which increases crop production in agriculture.
• Beeswax is widely used in cosmetics - for making cream, lipstick, candles, etc.
• Beekeepers can earn a large sum of money if they gain knowledge of extracting royal jelly from bees.
• Farmers can earn a lot of money from apiculture, which can promote the economy of a nation.

• Do not confuse royal jelly (fed to all larvae for 3 days, and continuously to future queens) with beebread (fed to future workers and drones after 3 days).
• Remember drones are haploid (16 chromosomes); queen and worker bees are diploid (32 chromosomes).
• Do not say drones sting - only queen and worker bees have a sting; drones lack a sting, pollen basket and wax glands.
• Do not mix up the duration of egg, larva and pupa stages for queen, worker and drone - always double-check with the table.
• Remember parthenogenesis produces drones from unfertilized eggs; it is not the same as normal (fertilized) reproduction.
• Division of labour in worker bees changes with age - do not assume a worker does the same task throughout its life.

• Honey bee: social insect, phylum Arthropoda; three types in a hive - queen, worker, drone.
• Body: head (eyes, antennae, mouthparts), thorax (3 segments, legs, wings), abdomen (9 segments).
• Queen: only one per hive, lays eggs, diploid, lives longest, produces pheromone.
• Drone: haploid, from unfertilized egg (parthenogenesis), fertilizes queen, dies after mating.
• Worker: smallest, diploid, does all hive work, life span 6 weeks-6 months.
• Life cycle: egg (3 days) - larva - pupa - adult; complete metamorphosis (histolysis + histogenesis).
• Total development time: queen 16 days, worker 21 days, drone 24 days.
• Apiculture = commercial bee farming; melittology/apicology = scientific study of bees.
• Honey: mostly carbohydrates (80-85%) and water (15-17%), made from nectar by evaporation.