Unfortunately, in the modern world, circumstances often develop so that we stop paying attention to the nature around us. Arriving somewhere (say, in Africa or Australia), we are amazed at the diversity of local flora and fauna, but in our own state we do not notice any plants, no birds, no animals. But in vain. Take, for example, such a stunning insect as a bee. Interesting facts about her cannot fail to attract the attention of even the most inquisitive.
This article is intended to interest the reader by telling him in a simple and understandable language about the nuances that are well-known only in narrow circles. For example, many will actually be curious to find out where the bees live in winter, how and what they eat in warm and cold. time of year, how to breed and build their homes.
Section 1. Characteristics of insects
Bees, interesting facts about which have recently been literally flooded by the media, have webbed wings, a short and elongated abdomen.
The body of males is sometimes densely pubescent, and they have a straight antennae, but in females they are articulated, consisting of 12-13 segments. The eyes are bare, sometimes covered with cilia, the mouth organs are a gnawing type.
All bees have a proboscis and an expanded first segment of the hind legs - key elements for collecting pollen from flowers and nectar. The latter, by the way, is collected by the sucking proboscis into a goiter with a valve that blocks the access of nectar to the gastric tract. The abdomen is often covered with hairs. On the hind legs there is a “basket” - especially for collecting pollen. By the way, not everyone knows that only females have a sting.
Section 2. The Hierarchy of Bees
These insects are quite highly organized insects: they look for food, water, equip housing, honeycombs, care for the uterus and offspring with joint efforts and together defend themselves from enemies. That is why the breeding of bees, as a rule, does not require such huge efforts as it might seem at first glance.
The most advanced public education of this species are eusocial colonies, where honey bees, the so-called stingless and bumblebees live together. Given that they have a clearly defined division of labor, this group may well be called semi-public.
In the case when, in addition to all of the above, the swarm consists of the uterus and its female offspring, the group is called public. In such a structure, the mother bee is usually called the uterus, and its daughters are called workers.
Section 3. How long does a bee live?
The life span of these insects directly depends on the total strength of the family. In the weak group, the working bee can live in the spring for about 4 weeks, in the strong - 5-7 weeks. And it all depends on the total size of the family, as well as the egg production of the uterus.
However, not everyone knows that bees are able to regulate their lifespan. Most likely, they have some kind of secret of updating the body, if there is no opportunity to grow a new generation of bees. For example, if the family suddenly lost its uterus, then their lifespan may increase to 200 days or more.
The life of most working bees is also lengthening at a time when the family decided to swarm or prepare for wintering. Wintered insects live about 7 months and work for about 1 month for the benefit of their colony. That is, winter individuals live 5-7 times longer than summer ones. Thus, the summer life of a bee on average is a little over a month, and winter - about 200 days.
Section 4. What does bee nectar consist of and how is it formed?
A bee scoops up a drop of flower nectar secreted by plants (weighing 40-50 mg) and enriches it with its saliva, which contains a lot of enzymes. In addition, in her goiter there is a process of splitting of sucrose, as a result of which nectar becomes honey.
Upon returning to the hive, the collecting bee passes a drop of nectar to the receiving bee, which continues biochemical processing, and then puts the nectar into honeycombs, where it also undergoes chemical processing - "ripening".
At this time, intense evaporation of water, settling of tannins, etc. takes place. The maintenance of bees in this period requires special attention and care.
Section 5. Toiler
It is hard to imagine that to get just one spoonful of honey for a whole day, 200 working bees will have to actively collect nectar. But that is not all. Approximately the same number of individuals should be engaged in the intake of nectar, its further processing in the hive. Plus, a part of the bees ventilates the nest for faster evaporation of excess water from the brought product.
And in order to seal honey in 75 bee cells, toilers need to allocate 1 gram of wax. To create 1 kg of honey, bees must make about 4500 sorties, collect nectar from 10 million flowering plants.
In principle, a strong family can collect 5-10 kg of honey per day or 10-20 kg of nectar. These insects are able to fly away from their hive for 8 km in search of such prey.
What a bee loves is hard to imagine. These insects are able to collect nectar from completely different flowering plants. That is why some apiary owners prefer to take out their hives to collect honey from a certain type of plant, for example, from acacia, rapeseed or linden.
Section 6. Characteristics of these honey insects
It would seem, well, what could be unusual in such a fairly widespread insect as a bee? Interesting facts, however, indicate the exact opposite. Despite the fact that in the warm season we can observe them quite often, not everyone knows what they live with and how their painstaking work is organized.
Of course, the professional maintenance of bees requires special skills, but an ordinary person will be curious to learn that honey families are pronounced social colonies, where each individual performs its function, determined by its biological age.
So, young insects (up to 10 days old), it turns out, feed the uterus and larvae. Somewhere from 7 days of age, special wax glands begin to work on the lower abdomen of bee builders, so they switch to various construction works in the nest.
By 14-15 days, a bee, interesting facts about which cannot but arouse curiosity, loses its productivity, the productivity of the wax glands decreases dramatically, and insects begin to engage in other activities related to caring for the nest - cleaning cells and garbage removal.
When the bees are 20 days old, they provide ventilation for the nest and its protection. Individuals older than 22 days are engaged in honey collection. And those older than 30 days are responsible for collecting water for the needs of the family.
By the way, adult bees remain in the hive in the winter, and for this period their life freezes, however, the insects do not die, as is customarily mistakenly assumed.
Section 7. How to recognize the killer?
Such an insect as a bee, interesting facts about which at first glance, as a rule, seem very unlikely, can pose a mortal danger to humans. And now we are not talking about poor fellow allergies, a simple bite in which causes a terrible reaction of the body, or even asphyxiation. Everyone and us can become a victim, however, for this you need to go to South America.
Not everyone knows that killer bees are hybrids of a honey bee. They have a higher aggressiveness, can attack a person, pets, very seriously sting.
According to statistics, since 1969, more than 200 people died in Brazil, and several thousand people were seriously affected by the bites of killer bees. These individuals attack 30 times faster, and sting 10 times more often than ordinary honey plants.
At the slightest alarm, they attack with a whole swarm of everyone who appears within a radius of 5 m from their hive, and can pursue the victim for about 1.5 km. And if you consider that a bee of this variety loves shady places, for example, parks, squares or forests, it turns out that you can easily meet her on a walk.
Recently, foreign media reported that all over America, these insects killed about a thousand people. Horrible death usually occurs due to anaphylactic shock.