Honey is a tasty and healthy treat that bees collect. But do you know how many bees live? This article will answer this question, and also reveal the features of the life of the "honey producers".
Development Stages and Social Groups
Insects in the life cycle have 4 stages of development: egg-caterpillar-pupa-adult. The colony contains 10-50 thousand bees, which are divided into 3 social groups: the uterus, working females (sterile), male drones and developing young bees.
The uterus lays 1,000 eggs per day, it is the mother of all “honey-bearing laborers,” and its life expectancy is up to 5 years. If we compare how many working bees and the uterus live, it turns out that only the uterus lives for several years, the remaining individuals remain viable for 1.5–9 months.
As a result of mating the uterus with the male, 2 sets of genes are formed that are transmitted to female descendants (working bees). Male drones are endowed only with sexual function, they are recognized as semi-slopes of the uterus and do not have a paternal set of genes. If, when crossed by beekeepers, eggs are fertilized with two copies of the same allele gene, then sterile males appear, which are destroyed by working bees even at the larval stage. If crosses fail, entire families may die.
How many bees live
On average, a working bee lives for six weeks, but it dies immediately if it stings someone. Drones have no sting, and they are larger than working individuals. They are looked after by "hard workers". They live 2 months only because they must fertilize the young uterus during this time. If this does not happen, they are either kicked out, or they themselves leave the family.
How many bees live that emerged from the larvae on the eve of autumn? They hibernate until spring in the hive, so the lifespan of such individuals increases and can reach 7-9 months.
“Honey workers” have a very unusual feature - they can regulate the duration of their life. It happens:
- in case of emergency (deprivation of the uterus);
- when swarming bees.
The life expectancy of some individuals in these cases can reach 150-200 days. Beekeepers also noted that with abundant supply of pollen by the bee family, insects live longer. In a strong family, bees look after each other, so life is established there. But the main indicator on which the bee’s life will depend is its activity: the more work, the faster the individual becomes decrepit.
Factors affecting the life span of the honey workers
Thus, the life of bees depends on the following factors:
- time of year - in winter individuals live longer;
- belonging to the social category - the uterus lives the longest;
- the strength of the bee family - in strong families, individuals live longer;
- the amount of processed nectar - the more intensively a bee works, the shorter is its lifespan.
Before breeding bees, you need to find out all the features of the life expectancy of bees in order to increase the efficiency of the hive. Indeed, for the production of one kilogram of honey, a bee needs to fly out of the hive and visit the flower 20 million times. Of course, not one bee makes honey, but thousands. But you need to take care of them and ensure comfortable living conditions.