Bees are one of the most beneficial insects, because they get honey. For many centuries this product has not ceased to be in demand, and beekeeping is developing. In order for these insects to work well and bring as much as possible loved by many goodies, you need to know what the bee eats.
Bee feeding
It is known that the duties of insects living in the hive are shared. Some individuals procure honey and supply their families with food, others feed offspring and keep order. Each bee has its own diet, which must be observed in order for the hive to work correctly. They should get enough carbohydrates, proteins and lipids.
Of course, answering the question about what the bee eats, honey can be called the first product. It depends on its quality how insects survive the winter and whether they survive it at all. In the summer, it is necessary to ensure that the plants from which they collect the treat contain as little carbohydrates as sucrose and glucose. The fact is that these organic compounds accelerate the crystallization of honey. Even collecting enough of it, bees can die of starvation due to the fact that their food has turned into crystals. Plants with the highest amount of glucose and sucrose in their nectar include sunflower, cotton, heather, mustard, colza and canola.
With a shortage of honey, bees can become more susceptible to various viruses, their immunity weakens, dozens of individuals die. If possible, you should refuse to replace a natural product with an artificial one. However, if there is no other way, then carbohydrates such as sucrose, glucose or fructose are used.
How to save honey?
Speaking about what the bee eats, one cannot but mention ways to reduce the crystallization of honey:
- Be sure to have a large amount of water in the hive.
- Before winter, you should clean the hive from last year's goodies. If you still have sugar crystals obtained from the previous year's crop, you must urgently get rid of them.
- It is important to maintain a constant temperature regime. The process of crystallization of honey slows down if the temperature drops below thirteen degrees or rises above fourteen.
Worker Bee Nutrition
As mentioned earlier, the responsibilities of all individuals are clearly divided in the hive. The task of working bees is to get honey and bring it to the house. As a rule, these are females, but they never give birth to offspring.
Saying what a working bee eats, one cannot but say that those foods that provide a large amount of energy should be included in its diet. Being larvae, future workers receive as many useful substances as other individuals that will perform equally important functions.
What does a bee eat at the beginning of its development? Nurses deliver milk to the cells with larvae, and then, when young bees grow up, their diet changes: now it consists of a mixture of honey, pollen and, of course, water.
When the larva becomes a bee, then it immediately begins to perform simple tasks, for example, cleans the hive. In the first three days of life, the glands that feed the young are formed, and at this time the insect eats food that it takes from other bees. And on the fourth day she independently gets food for herself. As she grows older and stronger, she gradually inspects the area around the swarm and will soon be producing nectar.
Bee Uterus Nutrition
What does the queen bee eat? That individual that reproduces the offspring in large quantities consumes royal milk, which contains the substances necessary for its vital activity. Bees bring nectar into the hive, from which a substance containing proteins and lipids is released. It is precisely the uterus of the bee that feeds on them.
During the laying period, uterine nutrition is monitored not only by working bees, which bring nectar to the hive, but also by others, who produce food specifically for the female. When swarming occurs, the female consumes simpler food - ordinary honey.
Bee Drone Food
People who live on everything ready and do not work are compared with drones. These bees, however, perform a very important function in the swarm - they fertilize the uterus. As a rule, after mating is completed, the drone dies, but this does not always happen.
While still in a larval state, males consume more food than females. Drone diet includes honey and nectar. More often than not, they do not harvest it on their own and feed on what the working bees bring. If they cannot find food in a swarm or beehive, they fly out in search of food and look for flowers on their own. By the way, at these moments the drones are especially defenseless: they cannot defend themselves from the attack of any insects and birds, since they have no sting.
As you can see, what the bee’s drone eats is pretty simple to tell. In addition, this information can be supplemented with the fact that males, as a rule, live in such summer months, when there is especially a lot of honey and it is enough to feed all members of the swarm.