Learning the Art of Beekeeping -- Part Three

in homesteading •  7 years ago 

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The following is a small excerpt from my previously published book, The Beekeeper's Guide.

Three Makes One

Who runs the hive? How does the hive operate? Who does all the work? These are questions that need to be answered so you know what is going on in your hive and how the command structure within your hive is organized.

The Queen

The queen is the center of the universe for the colony. Without her, the colony becomes listless, weak and eventually dies off. With her, all the activities of the worker bees have greater urgency; the colony thrives and produces honey, wax, pollen and propolis in abundance. The queen bee is literally the mother of the entire colony.

A queen’s life starts out as just another egg. Based on subtle clues, the worker bees decide the time is ripe for an insurrection. They build a queen cup, which is a hex that is slightly larger than the average comb hex and hangs vertically from the honeycomb instead of horizontally like the normal hex cell. The reigning queen comes along and lays an egg in this special hex cell. The egg is nothing special; if treated and fed like all the other eggs, it would merely become another worker bee. But, the workers want something special for this egg. If conditions are right, this egg will become queen in less than thirty days. After the egg is deposited in the cup, it will sit there for three days. Just like any other egg, after three days the egg will hatch into a larva. The workers begin to feed this special future royalty exclusively with royal jelly. Every other larva gets a bit of royal jelly in their diet, but the future queen eats only royal jelly. On the ninth day after being laid, the workers come and cap the wax hex. On the sixteenth day, the new virgin queen is ready to emerge from her cell. She chews off the top of her cell and comes forth in all her regal splendor.

Immediately, she has a fight on her hands…er, legs. She will seek out the current queen and begin a fight to the death. The loser dies. The winner rules. Often, when the worker bees sense a change in the air, they will produce six to twelve of these future queens. Mother Nature seems to feel a bit of back up is in order in case the first virgin queen to emerge loses the battle with the old monarch. The first virgin queen to emerge and then win the battle against the reigning royal will seek out any unemerged queen larvae and sting them to death in their cells. This ensures that she rules supreme, for in the bee hive there can only be one queen.

The virgin queen takes her maiden flight within a few days. She will choose a calm, sunny day. Up she flies to a nearby “drone congregation area”. There she will mate in flight with between twelve and twenty drones. She is able to store upwards of 6 million sperm in her spermatheca and will use these over the next years of her life to fertilize her amazing egg laying habit. After mating, which she only does this once, she returns to the hive and within three days begins to lay up to an astounding 2000 eggs every day during the spring build up. This number can fluctuate a bit, but over her lifetime, a healthy queen will lay millions of eggs. She can control the sex of the eggs and will carefully lay just a few drones for every thousand worker bees. The queen spends the rest of her life laying eggs. She does nothing else. Her every need is attended to by the worker bees that surround her for the rest of her life. They feed her, carry off her waste and distribute her queen mandibular pheromone—which is the pheromone that lets the hive all know the queen is on the throne and she is doing well.

INTERESTING NOTE: A virgin queen will often pipe. This is a vibrational signal similar to quacking or tooting. Right before she emerges, a virgin queen will make a G# sound in a two second pulse followed by a series of 1/4 second toots. For some reason, before a virgin queen emerges from her cell the signal is more like a quacking. Once emerged, the sound becomes more like a toot. Both sounds are referred to as piping. Piping is thought to be a battle cry calling forth any competitors to battle. Interestingly enough, a mated queen that is introduced into a new hive also will pipe. Most experts think it is the way she signals to the workers in the hive that she is a valid ruler.

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My book, The Beekeeper's Guide, is available for purchase on Amazon right here.

© 2015, Stone Golem Publishing, All rights reserved--no part of this may be used without express written consent.

**The picture is from Pixabay. They have it marked as labeled for reuse.

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Bees are very interesting!

@bigpanda this is a excelent post, the information about the bees is so good. Have a wonderful weekend

Thanks! You too my friend.

WOW!

Immediately, she has a fight on her hands…er, legs. She will seek out the current queen and begin a fight to the death. The loser dies. The winner rules

I knew only one queen could rule over a hive but... this is quite aggressive! I learned so much from this post! thank you

It does seem like a brutal way to determine the ruler of the hive, but that is how it is. I guess it eliminates weak queens which would be beneficial for the long term health of the hive.

True... putting it that way makes sense. But dang... glad I'm not a bee!

Didn't know you have published a book. How wonderful?. woow, excellent post btw, very informative. keep going please.

I did several years ago--and now I decided to make parts of it available here to all my Steemit friends.

Very good article. Thank you for sharing knowledge @bigpanda.

Thanks so much.

So interesting, I was amused by the G# sound created by a virgin queen bee. Bees are cool

It does seem kind of funny to me as well. I don't have any good audio but there is some on the internet of the queen piping. It really does sound a bit like a duck.

Hahaha! I wanna hear it next time. Hopefully you can get a good audio about it. Its really cool! Bzzzzzzzzz.

I didn't know they laid backup virgins; when bees usurp, they leave no room for failure!

Exactly. There are typically between 6 and 12 total potential queens before the old queen absconds with the majority of the hive. This means there is little chance of total failure for the old hive.

Immediately, she has a fight on her hands…er, legs. She will seek out the current queen and begin a fight to the death. The loser dies. The winner rules. Often, when the worker bees sense a change in the air, they will produce six to twelve of these future queens.

Ok. I am a real bee fan from now on.

What they don't know is that winter is coming...

Hahahaha. Winter is coming.... I love it!

Thank you for sharing about the bees. I knew most of them. My uncle does beekeeping profession.
My uncle has beehives. I wore a protective suit when I went for it. I can never go to them without that not dress. :))))
My uncle is doing beekeeping in the city of Trabzon in Turkey. The hardest thing is to protect hives from bears. So we put the hives on the slope side. Otherwise, the bears find a way and attack the bucket. All of the garden is covered with iron wires. Beekeeping is really a great job. But the dress is perfect together. :))))

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I like honey. I love honey. Bee is the only one way to make real honey. Honey is the best medicine for every human.thanks for share

Yes it is--it is a wonderful medicine.

Nice insight, what is Royal Jelly and is it sold in shops?

very nice article Greetings
Bees work with a very precise growth
Complex and bound
Yes as I said the center of the cell is the queen
I have a small experience in beekeeping
When we were in the desert
My father owned a cell of bees on the farm
We wanted to take out honey
Turn on the smoke
And bring it closer to the nest of bees
The bees will be taken away and we will get the honey
And also when the eggs hatch
He emerges from the nest in the shape of a small ball of society around his property
We bring a box of wood
And put sugar inside
And put it near the first nest
The little bees that make up a small ball will enter the box from the box where we make it
The Fund is a pillar
And synthesize the cell and put the honey
And it is always emphasized

Interesting story of 🐝.
@bigpanda we love the Queen part

Its amazing post about bees thank for sharing this @bigpanda

Great write up @bigpanda, Wow, them Queen bees are the King of the hive then, haha, bees are a very important part of our lives pollinating most of our food, great to see you sharing your knowledge with us all. Thanks for sharing.

You got a 3.63% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @bigpanda! Want to promote your posts too? Check out the Steem Bot Tracker website for more info. If you would like to support development of @postpromoter and the bot tracker please vote for @yabapmatt for witness!

That's a excellent post @bigpanda

Hi, @bigpanda!

Very useful and interesting article.
Indeed, the life of the queen is very, very important for all bees. Without it, they die. As if they were living for her. This is a pure form of matriarchy =)))
One of the most important functions of the beekeeper is to ensure that everything is fine with the queen and she was in the hive.

When I first watched the bees, it was very difficult for me to find her among all the bees.

To note =) it is usually always larger than all bees: it is longer and has more wings than standard bees.

Congratulations on your return home, my dear friend!
I wish you and your family good health and happiness!

And of course I wish your bees)))))

The queen is vaccinated outside the cell and can not be carried out inside the cell or in a closed space at all, after the departure of the Virgin Queen from the Royal House by (3 5) days of extracellular flight (pre-wedding flight) Followed by the flight of the wedding, which usually occurs in the clear air in the afternoon, and the Virgin Queen graduated from the cell and spoke a special voice to inflame male enthusiasm and produce a special smell of the glands of the jaw working to stimulate and alert males, and fly Queen Virgin followed by a male tractor army not only from the community but also Of the neighboring sects who are hungry to catch up with the king The virgins gathered in the male gathering area and the fastest and most powerful male body and structure are the ones who obtain the Queen's vaccination while the weak males fall one after the other and trace all these males to the queen is necessary to keep and sustain the species and keep it from degradation. Continuing time, when a strong male can catch up with the queen and catch her while flying through the six legs, and through sensory cells in the genital area, he can identify the sting chamber and enter the member of the sphincter. About 48 hours after the end of the vaccination process, Bih completely free of any sperm stored in the midwife sperm about from 5 6 million animals sperm, and helps a network of bronchitis and also the secretion of nourishing the glands on viable sperm survival and the continuation of life and vitality of the sperm for a long period of time. Queen begins laying eggs after about two days of successful pollination and to lay eggs fertilized, the egg during the exit brings out a group of sperm for enrichment

u are always share informative post thank u

This post has received a 8.38 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @bigpanda.

wonderful post thank you for this information @bigpanda

can we genetically engineer some non-stinging bees?

i mean i love that they go pollinate stuff, but i hate the stinging

How do u gather all this knowledge the way u do, u write like u dint d anything else with ur life..just writing! Very insightful

Wow!!!! I am speech less
First point the queen when an egg was ordinary but treated special WOW
second point What an amazing royal treatment she is getting
third point when you have to rule you have to compete, win and then rule
Amazing I am just thirsty for more sweet information buddy @bigpanda keep posting I am learning too much

hmmmm! so that's why they are called social insects its soooooo amazinggg that you share these good stuff about the queen @bigpanda lovely to hear about the royalty

well love the last two parts

articles that are very useful, can increase knowledge.
Thanks for information. @bigpanda

I found that absolutely fascinating - I would love to have bees on my property - maybe one day :)

A pretty detailed post about what you like to do most. You finally arrived from your work trip.

Thank you for your so much beautiful blog and honey bees are my favorite ones and it comes in a lot of ways

Very nice and i love , nice writing , nice thinking.......love it

I have fear of bees. But my homesteading instincts are tempting me to try beekeeping. I may have to try this and see if I can get this as a serious business. :)


Rydhi
xox

@bigpanda I like your post, thank you very much for the vote

This is good, I never new this is what happens there but I know that there's always a queen. This fact shows that nature's ideas are always similar because the quest for power amongst the bee to be queens is similar to what happens in most African kingdoms. Thanks for sharing

very good

Very nice post Thank you

very intresting article ..keep it that way @bigpanda

I am thinking to keep honeybees in my house now 😍

A very informative and interesting post thank you @bigpanda!