bio67honeybees

[bio67honeybees]

Photo/Edit Credit: @Missjescho 

[bio67honeybees]

[bio67honeybees]

bee hotel? that's a thing!?

It is indeed! Here are some examples:

[bio67honeybees]

The Life Cycle of a Honeybee

All bees start out as eggs. Even the queen! Each egg is around 1.7 millimetres long, occupying a single cell that the workers had previously cleaned. The Queen is picky, for if there is one spec of dirt in the cell, she will move on. The size of the cell she chooses determines the development of the bee, for example, wider cells create drone bees (coming from an unfertilized egg), while the smaller cells create worker bees (emerging from a fertilised eggs).

For all bees, they hatch into larvae after 3 days. The nurse bees take care of all these larvae, which have specific appetites. Only the first larva is given a substance called “royal jelly”, a specific mixture of ingredients around the hive, which creates the queen! If there are multiple queens in the hive after they are hatched, they will fight until there is only one.

After they are fed and grow spontaneously, the worker bees will seal all cells containing larvae with a wax, so that the new bees are able to spin a cocoon around themselves. After this, the bees are “pupae”, and noticeable transformations start to occur. Everything takes place, and after a specific amount of days, the adult bee will chew their way through the wax coating to start living a life around the hive! For a queen bee, it takes her 16 days to emerge, while workers take 21, and drones take 24.

How long do they live for, though? Well, it ultimately depends on the season they are born in. The queen lives for 3-4 years no matter what. The worker bees, on the other hand, live for 36 days in the summer, or 6 months in the winter (for they are able to feed on the past collections of other bees). The drone bee also survives for longer during the winter, 59 days opposed to 22 in the summer, for they are shut out of the hive if food supplies are low in the summer. The workers will literally guard the hive so that the drones can no longer enter before the winter season. Desperate times call for desperate measures!

There you have it, the life cycle of a honeybee! These creatures are truly so intelligent, so let’s help them out. Save the bees.

(source)

[bio67honeybees]

The Waggle Dance

Bees use a unique “Waggle Dance” pattern to communicate where good and bad locations are.

Dying bees from commercial pesticide locations rush back and shake their booty off to help warn the colony so other members can survive.

Help Save The Bees:

Donate directly to HoneyLove

Shop at Bee-High

(GIFs via Georgia Tech)

[bio67honeybees]

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[bio67honeybees]

Hey so it’s almost springtime, which is swarming season for our bee friends!

Swarming is totally normal for a colony of bees so if you see something like this, don’t spray pesticides or harm the bees! It’s not dangerous at all and they happen to very calm like this because they are not protecting a hive or a queen. If they are swarming near your house and need to be removed, call a beekeeper and let a professional take care of them.

Even if you’re scared or allergic to bees, there’s no reason to harm these creatures when they’re naturally preparing for spring. Make sure you spread this information around to protect the bees!

[bio67honeybees]

#savethebees

[bio67honeybees]

The honey batch process.

[bio67honeybees]

Short but interesting video - time lapse of bees hatching (unfortunately featuring those damn varroa mites)

[bio67honeybees]

Save the bees!

Honey nut cheerios is running a “save the bees” campaign. If you google it, they’ll send you wildflower seeds! Im super excited for flowers!!! ::edit::

Just a reminder, check to make sure the flowers are not an invasive species in your area! I know where I live, all the species are safe to plant, but do a quick google search and double check!