What is colony in beekeeping?

bee is a common name given to insects in the Apoidea of the order. There are more than 20 thousand species of bees in the world, of which 6 are present in Mexico, with more than 1800 described species. The bees of the Bombus family are classified as the best known for their production characteristics through the Apis mellifera bee. A colony of bees can have up to 60 thousand bees, of which one is a queen, hundreds are drones and thousands are workers, according to one of the genera. Each caste has its own characteristics.

Queen. She is in charge of laying the eggs that will be used to make drones. She presents a metamorphosis of 16 days, she comes from a fertilized egg and is fed with royal jelly during all the time that she remains in the larval state. She can live up to 5 years in the wild.

A flying object.

His main function is to fertilize the queen; It presents a metamorphosis of 24 days, it comes from an unfertilized egg (parthenogenesis) and in the larval stage it is fed with royal jelly for only three days, after which it receives nectar and pollen from worker bees; Their life time is varied, since after fertilizing the queen it dies, and those that do not reproduce live the same time as the flowering period, since they stop being fed at the end of said period.

worker They should perform various activities according to their development.

It presents a metamorphosis of 21 days, its origin is from a fertilized egg and in the larva stage it is fed with royal jelly for three days, and then it receives bread from the bees, food made from honey and pollen; its life time during the flowering season is estimated at 45 days, or up to 3 months if there are no foraging activities.

BehAVIOUR.

There are two types of bees, solitary bees and eusocial bees. The last type are characterized by using the same nest, having multiple generations and helping the adults through a caste system.

The behavior of honey bees is determined by a set of chemical substances called pheromones, which are produced by the hypopharyngeal, mandibular and cerigenic glands. Bee behavior is caused by a specific pheromone. Pheromone can be synthesised at any time, either over a period of time or just by some sporadic event.

As soon as they are perceived, heromones that cause immediate and reversible behavior can be identified. The release of alarm pheromones can cause defensive behavior among workers.

There are other hormones that can change the way we respond. The hive workers have a royal pheromone that prevents the development of their ovaries.

The activities of the bees on the day they emerge from the cell are:

Workers.

They feed the young until they are 12 days old, after which they have the ability to produce royal jelly, and after that they have to clean the hive. During a period that goes from 13 to 18 days, they can carry out different activities according to the needs of the colony; it is possible to identify bees that are in charge of the construction of the honeycombs and the operculum, thanks to the formation of wax through the cerigenic glands; others that are in charge of receiving the loads of food, water and propolis to deposit them inside the cells or in places where they are needed. Already more advanced in age (day 19 to 21) and once they are capable of producing poison through certain glands, they carry out guard and protection activities; and finally, at approximately 22 days and until the end of their lives, they engage in foraging activities to bring nectar, pollen and other necessary resources to the colony.

There is a queen.

After 20 days it goes through different processes and starts laying eggs, later it dedicates itself to ovipositing, laying one thousand to two thousand eggs a day.

The queen bee is one of the three castes that make up Bee Hives, which can hold up to eighty thousand individuals. Worker bees make up the most numerous part of the colony, and are the most commonly seen bees.

The way in which bees form their colonies is very different from other insects. The mature queen bee leaves the hive with a large number of workers to form a new group, leaving the unborn queens in their royal cells and the rest of the original colony behind.

A swarm is a group of bees with a new queen. A swarm should not be confused with a colony found inside an enclosure.

A hive is a group of bees that are arranged in a location.

A cabin is made to house a hive for the purpose of Beekeeping.

A family of bees has a queen, worker bees and drones.

The queen has a mission to lay eggs and distribute them and maintain the colony's cohesion with her pheromones. She puts an egg in each cell.

The number of eggs is variable, depending on the time of year and the conditions of the colony: if the blooms are scarce and therefore the entry of nectar and pollen is low, the laying decreases. She can lay two thousand eggs in a day.

The workers are very numerous and are in charge of collecting the nectar with which they make honey for their food and, together with the pollen, the bee bread to nourish the bee larvae which come out in the cells of the bees. The workers use the wax from the abdomen to build the combs and close them with a fine layer. The process of "capping" is done in brood cells and honey cells.

The male drones die after having fertilized the virgin queens, since their genital apparatus detaches from the body and remains attached to her body to allow spermatozoa to pass to the spermatheca.

Most of the bees are killed at the end of the season, except for the strongest colonies.

A hive ready to receive bees must be provided with a swarm; This can sometimes be found hanging from a tree and needs to be collected with a kind of butterfly catcher called swarm catcher or directly bringing the hive closer to the group and with the help of a little smoke they head towards the entrance, if the hive it is to their liking soon many release the call pheromones and enter in droves; Another way is to divide an already established colony into two parts or even more to which a queen from a hatchery can be added or let the orphaned part make masters from which future virgin queens will be born.

Beekeepers need to protect their face and body with special suits and gloves. It is necessary to smoke the hive to calm the bees.

If a bee sting happens, the beekeeper can apply a piece of cotton soaked in ammonia to the sting to make it less painful.

There are two basic types of bees.

The walls of the hive are made of 25mm boards.

The table's measurement are in centimeters.