''Apis mellifera '' — western honeybee
''A. florea''
''A. dorsata''
''Apis cerana'' — eastern honeybee The honeybee is a colony (biology) insect that is often maintained, fed, and transported by farmers. Honeybees are a subset of bees which fall into the Order Hymenoptera and Suborder Apocrita. Of the approximately 20,000 known species of bees, four are considered honeybees: ''Apis florea'', ''Apis dorsata'', ''Apis cerana'', and ''Apis mellifera (Western honeybee)''. They have been domesticated at least since the time of the building of the Egyptian pyramids. Honeybees store honey (which is made from nectar) in their hives, which provides the energy for flight muscles and for heating during the winter period, and pollen which supplies protein for bee brood (honeybee) to grow. Through centuries of selective breeding, honeybees can produce far more honey than the colony needs. Beekeepers, also known as "apiarists", harvest the honey and supply sugar for the winter. ==Origin and distribution== [[Image:Bee on crocus.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Media:Bee on crocus.ogg Requires an Ogg Theora enabled player, such as VideoLAN.]] Honeybees probably originated in Tropical Africa and spread from South Africa to Northern Europe and East into India and China. The first bees appear in the fossil record in deposits dating about 40 million years ago during the Eocene period. At about 30 million years before present they appear to have developed social behavior and structurally are virtually identical with modern bees. ''Apis mellifera'', the most commonly domesticated species, is native to Europe, Asia and Africa. It is also called the Western honeybee. There are many sub-species that have adapted to the environment of their geographic and climatic area. Behavior, color and anatomy can be quite different from one sub-species or race to another. The sub-species ''Apis mellifera mellifera'' were brought to the Americas with the first colonists to Virginia in 1622, and numerous other occasions later. Many of the crops that depend on honeybees for pollination have also been imported since colonial times. Escaped swarms (known as wild bees, but actually feral) spread rapidly as far as the Great Plains, usually preceding the colonists. The Native Americans called the honeybee "the white man's fly." Honeybees did not naturally cross the Rockies; they were carried by ship to California in the early 1850s. ==Beekeeping== Beekeepers often provide a place for the colony to live and to store honey in. There are three basic types of beehive (beekeeping): skeps, Langstroth hives and top-bar hives. The type of beehive used has a significant impact on the ability to keep the colony healthy and on the amount of wax and honey that the colony can produce. Modern hives also enable beekeepers to transport bees, moving from field to field as the crop needs pollinating and allowing the beekeper to charge for the pollination services they provide. In cold climates, some beekeepers have kept colonies alive (with varying success) by moving them indoors for winter. While this can protect the colonies from extremes of temperature and make winter care and feeding more convenient for the beekeeper, it can increase the risk of dysentery (see the ''Nosema'' section of diseases of the honeybee) and can create an excessive buildup of carbon dioxide from the respiration of the bees. Recently inside wintering has been refined by Canadian beekeepers who build large barns just for wintering bees. Automated ventilation systems assist in the control of carbon dioxide build-up. [[Image:Bienenkoenigin.JPG|frame|left|Queen (The yellow dot on the thorax was added by a beekeeper to aid in finding the queen. She was probably born in 1997 or 2002; see the Queen article for an explanation of the color)]] ==Honeybee life cycle== Like other eusocial bees, a colony generally contains one breeding female, or "Queen (bee)"; a few thousand males, or "drones"; and a large population of sterile female workers. The female workers mature from nurse bees to become foragers. The foragers die usually when their wings are worn out after approximately 500 miles of flight. The population of a healthy hive in mid-summer can average between 40,000 and 80,000 bees. The workers cooperate to find food and are widely believed to use a pattern of "dancing" (known as ''the Bee learning and communication#Dance language'') to communicate with each other. ==Honeybee stings== Honeybees will sting when they perceive the hive to be threatened. A honeybee that is away from the hive foraging for nectar or pollen will rarely sting. A honeybee can sting only once. It injects apitoxin through the stinger. The stinger is a modified ovipositor. It has barbs which lodge in the skin. As the bee pulls away, the stinger rips loose from the bee's abdomen. During this process, the bee will also release alarm pheromones along with the stinger. The bee dies soon after it releases the stinger. Upon the bee's release of alarm pheromones, it attracts other bees to the location in their defensive behaviors. The larger drone bees have no stingers at all. The queen bee has a smooth stinger and could sting multiple times, but the queen does not leave the hive under normal conditions. Her stinger is not for defense of the hive; she only uses it for dispatching rival queens. Queen breeders who handle multiple queens and have the queen odor on their hands sometimes are stung by a queen. == Products of the honeybee == ===Pollination=== The honeybee's primary commercial value is as a pollinator of crops. As an example, in California, the pollination of almonds occurs early in the growing season, before local hives have built up their populations. Almond orchards require two hives per acre (2,000 m² per hive) for maximum yield and so the pollination is highly dependent upon the importation of hives from warmer climates. ===Honey=== ''Main article: Honey'' Honey is the substance made when the nectar and sweet deposits from plants are gathered, modified and stored in the honeycomb by honey bees.
The honeybee page should be separated into several separate pages. I'd like to combine the honey section with the honey page but don't know how to do this. Anyone willing to help? shoefly 12/28/2004 I deleted material that came from [http://www.cairns.net.au/~sharefin/Cyclopedia/rural_economy.html http://www.cairns.net.au/~sharefin/Cyclopedia/rural_economy.html] -- User:Zoe honey bee 2 Apr - Apparently, JohnOwen and I were editing this page at the same time. I think I found and integrated your changes. Please update if I missed anything. Rossami :Not much, just link to beekeeper even though there's nothing there yet (nor at apiarist nor beekeeping, I checked). And I don't like seeing caps in the first half of piped links, it's a pet peeve of mine; so I did that too. ;) -- User:JohnOwens 00:07 Apr 3, 2003 (UTC) ::apiculture I HAVE A HONEY BEE HIVE IN A WOOD PILE THAT HAS TO BE MOVED------I WOULD RATHER NOT KILL THEM,CAN ANYONE HELP WITH SOME INFO. THANKS WRONGWAY@ECENET.COM :Answered offline. The short answer. 1) Are you sure they are honeybees? 2) Do you want to become a beekeeper or just get rid of them? 3) Contact your local beekeeping association. (Most counties have one. Most extension offices or university agricultural departments know how to get in touch with them.) 4) Check out the archives of bee-specific websites such as the BEE-L listserve. http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?S1=bee-l User:Rossami 21:12, 10 Sep 2003 (UTC) ---- == "Pyramids"-- relevance== The intro ends with a reference to Egyptian pyramids: : Honeybees have been domesticated at least since the time of the building of the Egyptian pyramids. It sounds really misleading, like bees were used as glue to stick pyramid bricks together. ''What is the relevance?!'' If Egyptians used it, say "Egyptians practiced bee-culture". If people started using it during Egyptian time, say "Honeybee has been used by humans since 2100 BCE." Say what it's relevant straight-forwardly! --User:Menchi 05:26, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC) :Unfortunately, "used by humans since 2100 BCE" implies a precision that can not be supported by the archeological evidence. Beekeeping may have started far earlier than that - we just don't know. At the other extreme, "Egyptians practiced bee-culture" loses the meaning of the sentence by taking out all references to time - the Egyptians could have started yesterday and the sentence would still be true. The relevance of the sentence is that it defines beekeeping as an activity that has been going on for thousands of years; that the origins of beekeeping have been lost in time; and that the earliest known references to domesticated beekeeping are found in Egyptian ruins. I think the sentence above says all that in a very concise and easy-to-read manner. But I'm always open to improvements. User:Rossami 13:50, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Bee Problems== :''Feral North American honeybee populations were severely depleted by varroa mite infestations in the early 1990s. Feral bee populations are now recovering, having self bred for resistance to the mite. Improved cultural practices and bee breeds have reduced dependancy on miticides (acaracides) by beekeepers.'' I think this paragraph overstates the current state of affairs on a couple of points. If it's alright, I am going to temporarily revert the paragraph until we can address some of the comments below. User:Rossami 16:24, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC) # More than just the feral populations were hit. Kept colonies were hit just as hard. #*That depends on whether the beekeeper was consciencious and up to date. The mites have pretty well eliminated the rural laissez faire old timey beekeepers who had bees simply because their parents and grandparents did. But younger and more suburban beekeepers tend to be club members and did a better job of keeping up with the issues. Indeed some areas have seen a little growth in beekeeping, mainly where they have a dynamic club.User:Pollinator 21:16, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC) # I have not yet seen any evidence that feral bee populations are recovering or that they have developed any resistance to the mites. Most of the research which I have read traces the "new feral" colonies to recently escaped swarms from commercial or hobbyist beekeepers. They often colonize the same places (and on the same comb) as the last colony so it can appear that a colony has existed in the same place for a period of time when, in fact, it has been several colonies in succession finding a cavity, inhabiting it and succumbing to the mites. As further evidence, if any feral bees had developed confirmed resistance to the mites, they would have been immediately domesticated by the beekeeping industry. No such resistant bee is available on the market, leading me to believe that this statement is not yet true. #*There are some feral populations on the southeast US coast, according to my and other beekeeper swarm calls, discussions with loggers, observations of flower foraging, etc. But when I go inland, or northward, there are many places where honeybees cannot be found unless there are beekeepers in the area. I would guess that some bees in mild climates have been able to coexist with the mites, but that the addition of a more severe climate is too much.User:Pollinator 21:16, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC #*I reinserted the feral recovery part. Our observation in our bee club (suburban inland S.F. Bay Area (California USA) was that upon arival of varroa, calls for swarm removal declined from several hundred a month to only a few. The last three years have seen an incredible restoration of our swarm calls during peak season (about now) to the 100+ range per month. These are feral swarms as our beekeepers are careful to avoid swarming from kept hives and most local beekeepers are members of the club. We have considerable urban and open space woodlands with much oak which forms favorable sites for cavity dwelling bees. User:Leonard G. 02:06, 30 Apr 2004 (UTC) # While improved breeds and IPM practices ''can'' reduce the dependency on miticides, I think it is premature to say that they ''have'' reduced dependency. Those breeds and practices have not yet been adopted widely enough to truly reduce the dependence. Evidence - the sales of Checkmite and Apistan remain strong and there is great clamor for the pending approval of Apilife Var. When sales of those products drop off, I think we will be able to say ''have reduced dependency''. #* Good point. I'm sure there are some stocks in many commercial outfits though, that have some resistance, especially if they have been buying Russian and other resistant queens, or using some feral stock. It's just that commercial beekeepers are not able to take the risk of not treating, and losing all those which do not have resistance. User:Pollinator 21:16, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC) #* I have been keeping bees without medications of any kind (4 years now) using top bar hives and wild swarms. Tanzanian hives are particularly mite resistant in my observation. For Kenyans, culling of drone brood gives sufficient control in my circumstances. User:Leonard G. 02:10, 30 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==How many bees in a hive?== The article first mentions thousands, later hundreds of drones usually living in a hive. Which number is correct? Puzzled, --User:219.207.92.201 13:28, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC) :The number is seasonally variable. At the end of the spring buildup, which is the normal swarm season for wild bees, and the time many queens have to be mated, the drone population is very high. Some strong hives will have many thousands of drones, as much as a third of the population. Weaker hives usually don't produce as high a proportion, but will still have the most in late spring. During summer the number of drones dwindles down. By fall there may be only a few hundred. In the southern US, a strong hive may keep a few drones all winter. Weaker hives or hives in the northern US and Canada will throw out all the drones to freeze or starve with the first cold weather. I've seen hives keep drones most of the winter in South Carolina, then throw them out during a March storm, so this latitude is about the turning point for overwintering drones. When drone rearing begins in spring, queen breeders start their season. Some will try to move the date ahead a bit by stimulative feeding of the hives, but not many drones will be raised until there are sources of good natural pollen. :An old beekeeper I knew a half century ago used to consider the drones worthless parasites in the hives and he would sit at the entrance of his hives and stab drones with toothpicks. My own experience has been that bees that are not allowed to have the normal component of drones do not thrive. I call it a loss of morale... User:Pollinator 14:55, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC) : Both and neither. It depends on: :# the race of honeybee (Some produce more drones than others) :# the health of the hive (A healthy colony about to swarm generally produces more drones than a colony in distress. The big exception is a colony which has lost its queen and develops a laying worker who can only lay drone eggs.) :# the time of year (In the height of summer when the colony is at its strongest, there could easily be thousands of drones in the hive. In the winter, that number drops down to almost none. Conventional wisdom used to be that all drones were kicked out and allowed to die each fall. Recent research has shown, however, that some races do keep some drones alive through the winter under some conditions. Research is continuing to determine if this is a universal occurence which was previously overlooked or if there is some unknown causal reason.) :# local climate (From the bees' point of view, winter comes much earlier in Alaska than in, say, Florida. There is some current research trying to correlate honeybee lifecycles to the concept of growing degree days.) : among other things. Hope that helps. User:Rossami 15:01, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC) ''(Looks like Pollinator was answering the same question. Darned edit conflicts)'' == edits by User:68.219.225.139 == In a series of edits today, anonymous user User:68.219.225.139 deleted most of the content of this article leaving two short (though coherent) paragraphs. I believe a great deal of good content was lost during that edit. I'm not averse to streamlining this article if it needs it but such a sweeping change should probably be discussed here. Thanks. User:Rossami User talk:Rossami 22:32, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC) :I can't see any reason for the big deletions. The paragraphs look like they need to be included.User:Gzuckier 16:17, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Honeybee:
Honeybee
Honeybee
Honeybeemon
Honeybees
Honeybee_life_cycle
Honeybee
''Apis mellifera '' — western honeybee
''A. florea''
''A. dorsata''
''Apis cerana'' — eastern honeybee The honeybee is a colony (biology) insect that is often maintained, fed, and transported by farmers. Honeybees are a subset of bees which fall into the Order Hymenoptera and Suborder Apocrita. Of the approximately 20,000 known species of bees, four are considered honeybees: ''Apis florea'', ''Apis dorsata'', ''Apis cerana'', and ''Apis mellifera (Western honeybee)''. They have been domesticated at least since the time of the building of the Egyptian pyramids. Honeybees store honey (which is made from nectar) in their hives, which provides the energy for flight muscles and for heating during the winter period, and pollen which supplies protein for bee brood (honeybee) to grow. Through centuries of selective breeding, honeybees can produce far more honey than the colony needs. Beekeepers, also known as "apiarists", harvest the honey and supply sugar for the winter. ==Origin and distribution== [[Image:Bee on crocus.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Media:Bee on crocus.ogg Requires an Ogg Theora enabled player, such as VideoLAN.]] Honeybees probably originated in Tropical Africa and spread from South Africa to Northern Europe and East into India and China. The first bees appear in the fossil record in deposits dating about 40 million years ago during the Eocene period. At about 30 million years before present they appear to have developed social behavior and structurally are virtually identical with modern bees. ''Apis mellifera'', the most commonly domesticated species, is native to Europe, Asia and Africa. It is also called the Western honeybee. There are many sub-species that have adapted to the environment of their geographic and climatic area. Behavior, color and anatomy can be quite different from one sub-species or race to another. The sub-species ''Apis mellifera mellifera'' were brought to the Americas with the first colonists to Virginia in 1622, and numerous other occasions later. Many of the crops that depend on honeybees for pollination have also been imported since colonial times. Escaped swarms (known as wild bees, but actually feral) spread rapidly as far as the Great Plains, usually preceding the colonists. The Native Americans called the honeybee "the white man's fly." Honeybees did not naturally cross the Rockies; they were carried by ship to California in the early 1850s. ==Beekeeping== Beekeepers often provide a place for the colony to live and to store honey in. There are three basic types of beehive (beekeeping): skeps, Langstroth hives and top-bar hives. The type of beehive used has a significant impact on the ability to keep the colony healthy and on the amount of wax and honey that the colony can produce. Modern hives also enable beekeepers to transport bees, moving from field to field as the crop needs pollinating and allowing the beekeper to charge for the pollination services they provide. In cold climates, some beekeepers have kept colonies alive (with varying success) by moving them indoors for winter. While this can protect the colonies from extremes of temperature and make winter care and feeding more convenient for the beekeeper, it can increase the risk of dysentery (see the ''Nosema'' section of diseases of the honeybee) and can create an excessive buildup of carbon dioxide from the respiration of the bees. Recently inside wintering has been refined by Canadian beekeepers who build large barns just for wintering bees. Automated ventilation systems assist in the control of carbon dioxide build-up. [[Image:Bienenkoenigin.JPG|frame|left|Queen (The yellow dot on the thorax was added by a beekeeper to aid in finding the queen. She was probably born in 1997 or 2002; see the Queen article for an explanation of the color)]] ==Honeybee life cycle== Like other eusocial bees, a colony generally contains one breeding female, or "Queen (bee)"; a few thousand males, or "drones"; and a large population of sterile female workers. The female workers mature from nurse bees to become foragers. The foragers die usually when their wings are worn out after approximately 500 miles of flight. The population of a healthy hive in mid-summer can average between 40,000 and 80,000 bees. The workers cooperate to find food and are widely believed to use a pattern of "dancing" (known as ''the Bee learning and communication#Dance language'') to communicate with each other. ==Honeybee stings== Honeybees will sting when they perceive the hive to be threatened. A honeybee that is away from the hive foraging for nectar or pollen will rarely sting. A honeybee can sting only once. It injects apitoxin through the stinger. The stinger is a modified ovipositor. It has barbs which lodge in the skin. As the bee pulls away, the stinger rips loose from the bee's abdomen. During this process, the bee will also release alarm pheromones along with the stinger. The bee dies soon after it releases the stinger. Upon the bee's release of alarm pheromones, it attracts other bees to the location in their defensive behaviors. The larger drone bees have no stingers at all. The queen bee has a smooth stinger and could sting multiple times, but the queen does not leave the hive under normal conditions. Her stinger is not for defense of the hive; she only uses it for dispatching rival queens. Queen breeders who handle multiple queens and have the queen odor on their hands sometimes are stung by a queen. == Products of the honeybee == ===Pollination=== The honeybee's primary commercial value is as a pollinator of crops. As an example, in California, the pollination of almonds occurs early in the growing season, before local hives have built up their populations. Almond orchards require two hives per acre (2,000 m² per hive) for maximum yield and so the pollination is highly dependent upon the importation of hives from warmer climates. ===Honey=== ''Main article: Honey'' Honey is the substance made when the nectar and sweet deposits from plants are gathered, modified and stored in the honeycomb by honey bees.
''Honeycomb''
With nectar and pollen in the cells
===Beeswax===
''Main article: Beeswax''
Worker bees of a certain age will secrete beeswax from a series of glands on their abdomen. They use the wax to form the walls and caps of the comb. When honey is harvested, the wax can be gathered to be used in various wax products like candles and Seal (device).
===Pollen===
''Main article:Pollen''
Bees collect pollen in the pollen basket and carry it back to the hive. In the hive, pollen is used as a protein source necessary during brood-rearing. In certain environments, excess pollen can be collected from the hive. It is often eaten as a health supplement.
===Propolis===
''Main article: Propolis''
Propolis (or bee glue) is created from resins and tree saps. Honeybees use propolis to seal cracks in the hive. Propolis is also sold for its reported health benefits.
== Bee problems ==
*North American and European honeybee populations were severely depleted by Diseases_of_the_honeybee#Varroa mites infestations in the early 1990s. Chemical treatments saved most commercial operations and improved cultural practices and bee breeds are starting to reduce the dependency on miticides (acaracides) by beekeepers. Feral bee populations were greatly reduced during this period but now are slowly recovering, mostly in areas of mild climate, owing to natural selection for varroa resistance and repopulation by resistant breeds.
*Crop dusting insecticides and pesticide (toxic to bees) also deplete bees.
*Africanized bees have spread across the southern United States where they pose a small danger to humans.
* As an invasive species, feral bees have become a significant environmental problem in places where they are not native, including Australia. Imported bees compete with and displace native bees and birds.
==Communication==
See also: Bee learning and communication
Honey bees are an excellent animal to study with regards to behavior because they are abundant and familiar to most people. An animal that is disregarded every day has very specific behaviors that go unnoticed by the normal person. Karl von Frisch studied the behavior of honey bees with regards to communication and was awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine in 1973. Von Frisch noticed that honey bees communicate with the language of dance. Honey bees are able to direct other bees to food sources through the Round dance (honey bee) and the waggle dance. The round dance tells the other foragers that food is within 50 meters of the hive, but it does not provide much information regarding direction. The waggle dance, which may be vertical or horizontal, provides more detail about both the distance and the direction of the located food source. It is also hypothesized that the bees rely on their olfactory sense to help locate the food source once the foragers are given directions from the dances.
Another signal for communication is the shaking signal, also known as the jerking dance, vibration dance, or vibration signal. It is a modulatory communication signal because it appears to manipulate the overall arousal or activity of behaviors. The shaking signal is most common in worker communication, but it is also evident in reproductive swarming. A worker bee vibrates its body dorsoventrally while holding another honey bee with its front legs. Jacobus Biesmeijer examined the incidence of shaking signals in a forager’s life and the conditions that led to its performance to investigate why the shaking signal is used in communication for food sources. Biesmeijer found that the experienced foragers executed 92.1% of the observed shaking signals. He also observed that 64% of the shaking signals were executed by experienced foragers after they had discovered a food source. About 71% of the shaking signal sessions occurred after the first five foraging success within one day. Then other communication signals, such as the waggle dance, were performed more often after the first five successes. Biesmeijer proved that most shakers are foragers and that the shaking signal is most often executed by foraging bees over pre-foraging bees. Beismeijer concluded that the shaking signal presents the overall message of transfer work for various activities or activity levels. Sometimes the signal serves to increase activity, when bees shake inactive bees. At other times, the signal serves as an inhibitory mechanism such as the shaking signal at the end of the day. However, the shaking signal is preferentially directed towards inactive bees. All three types of communication between honey bees are effective in their jobs with regards to foraging and task managing.
===Sources===
Biesmeijer, Jacobus. "The Occurrence and Context of the Shaking Signal in Honey Bees (''Apis mellifera'') Exploiting Natural Food Sources". ''Ethology''. 2003.
Kak, Subhash C. "The Honey Bee Dance Language Controversy". ''The Mankind Quarterly''. 2001.
Schneider, S. S., P. K. Visscher, Camazine, S. "Vibration Signal Behavior of Waggle-dancers in Swarms of the Honey Bee, ''Apis mellifera'' (Hymenoptera: Apidae). ''Ethology''. 1998.
==Other species==
There are eleven species within the genus ''Apis'', all of which produce and store honey to some degree. These are the three that have historically been cultured for or robbed of honey by humans:
*''Apis cerana'' and ''Apis florea'' are small honeybees of southern and southeastern Asia which are cultured for honey in a similar fashion to ''Apis mellifera''. Their stings are often not capable of penetrating human skin, so the hive and swarms can be handled.
*''Apis dorsata'', the giant honeybee, is native to south and southeastern Asia, and usually makes its colonies on high tree limbs, or on cliffs, and sometimes on buildings. It is wild and can be very fierce. It is robbed of its honey periodically by human honey gatherers, a practice known as honey hunting. Its colonies are easily capable of stinging a human being to death when provoked.
In addition these non-Apis species of honeybees have been cultured or robbed for honey:
*''Melipona beecheii'', known as the stingless bee, is native to south-eastern Mexico and northern Central America. This bee has long been cultivated by the Maya peoples. The bee and its culture are dying out due to deforestation, pesticides, and the labor intensivity of its honey production. This bee is in some danger of becoming extinct.
*Ten species of genera ''Trigona'' and ''Austroplebeia'' in Australia produce and store honey. Australian Aborigines have used this as a source of food. More recently, these bees (called "native bees") in Australia have been cultivated on a small, "cottage industry" scale. The most important species for this industry are ''Trigona carbonaria'' and ''Trigona hockingsi''.
==Designated state insect==
*Kansas (1976)
*Louisiana
*Maine
*Mississippi (1980)
*Missouri (1985)
*Utah
*Vermont
*Wisconsin (1977)
==See also==
*Beekeeping leading practices
*Diseases of the honeybee
*Brood (honeybee)
*Honeybee life cycle
*List of honeybee races
*Characteristics of common wasps and bees
*Pesticide toxicity to bees
*Deseret
*Buckfast hybrid bee
*Queen bee
*Western honeybee
*Worker bee
== External links ==
* [http://kutikshoney.com Typical commercial, migratory beekeeping in the US]
Bees
Livestock
Apocrita
Beekeeping
Hymenoptera
fa:زنبور عسل
With nectar and pollen in the cells
Honeybee
The honeybee page should be separated into several separate pages. I'd like to combine the honey section with the honey page but don't know how to do this. Anyone willing to help? shoefly 12/28/2004 I deleted material that came from [http://www.cairns.net.au/~sharefin/Cyclopedia/rural_economy.html http://www.cairns.net.au/~sharefin/Cyclopedia/rural_economy.html] -- User:Zoe honey bee 2 Apr - Apparently, JohnOwen and I were editing this page at the same time. I think I found and integrated your changes. Please update if I missed anything. Rossami :Not much, just link to beekeeper even though there's nothing there yet (nor at apiarist nor beekeeping, I checked). And I don't like seeing caps in the first half of piped links, it's a pet peeve of mine; so I did that too. ;) -- User:JohnOwens 00:07 Apr 3, 2003 (UTC) ::apiculture I HAVE A HONEY BEE HIVE IN A WOOD PILE THAT HAS TO BE MOVED------I WOULD RATHER NOT KILL THEM,CAN ANYONE HELP WITH SOME INFO. THANKS WRONGWAY@ECENET.COM :Answered offline. The short answer. 1) Are you sure they are honeybees? 2) Do you want to become a beekeeper or just get rid of them? 3) Contact your local beekeeping association. (Most counties have one. Most extension offices or university agricultural departments know how to get in touch with them.) 4) Check out the archives of bee-specific websites such as the BEE-L listserve. http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?S1=bee-l User:Rossami 21:12, 10 Sep 2003 (UTC) ---- == "Pyramids"-- relevance== The intro ends with a reference to Egyptian pyramids: : Honeybees have been domesticated at least since the time of the building of the Egyptian pyramids. It sounds really misleading, like bees were used as glue to stick pyramid bricks together. ''What is the relevance?!'' If Egyptians used it, say "Egyptians practiced bee-culture". If people started using it during Egyptian time, say "Honeybee has been used by humans since 2100 BCE." Say what it's relevant straight-forwardly! --User:Menchi 05:26, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC) :Unfortunately, "used by humans since 2100 BCE" implies a precision that can not be supported by the archeological evidence. Beekeeping may have started far earlier than that - we just don't know. At the other extreme, "Egyptians practiced bee-culture" loses the meaning of the sentence by taking out all references to time - the Egyptians could have started yesterday and the sentence would still be true. The relevance of the sentence is that it defines beekeeping as an activity that has been going on for thousands of years; that the origins of beekeeping have been lost in time; and that the earliest known references to domesticated beekeeping are found in Egyptian ruins. I think the sentence above says all that in a very concise and easy-to-read manner. But I'm always open to improvements. User:Rossami 13:50, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Bee Problems== :''Feral North American honeybee populations were severely depleted by varroa mite infestations in the early 1990s. Feral bee populations are now recovering, having self bred for resistance to the mite. Improved cultural practices and bee breeds have reduced dependancy on miticides (acaracides) by beekeepers.'' I think this paragraph overstates the current state of affairs on a couple of points. If it's alright, I am going to temporarily revert the paragraph until we can address some of the comments below. User:Rossami 16:24, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC) # More than just the feral populations were hit. Kept colonies were hit just as hard. #*That depends on whether the beekeeper was consciencious and up to date. The mites have pretty well eliminated the rural laissez faire old timey beekeepers who had bees simply because their parents and grandparents did. But younger and more suburban beekeepers tend to be club members and did a better job of keeping up with the issues. Indeed some areas have seen a little growth in beekeeping, mainly where they have a dynamic club.User:Pollinator 21:16, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC) # I have not yet seen any evidence that feral bee populations are recovering or that they have developed any resistance to the mites. Most of the research which I have read traces the "new feral" colonies to recently escaped swarms from commercial or hobbyist beekeepers. They often colonize the same places (and on the same comb) as the last colony so it can appear that a colony has existed in the same place for a period of time when, in fact, it has been several colonies in succession finding a cavity, inhabiting it and succumbing to the mites. As further evidence, if any feral bees had developed confirmed resistance to the mites, they would have been immediately domesticated by the beekeeping industry. No such resistant bee is available on the market, leading me to believe that this statement is not yet true. #*There are some feral populations on the southeast US coast, according to my and other beekeeper swarm calls, discussions with loggers, observations of flower foraging, etc. But when I go inland, or northward, there are many places where honeybees cannot be found unless there are beekeepers in the area. I would guess that some bees in mild climates have been able to coexist with the mites, but that the addition of a more severe climate is too much.User:Pollinator 21:16, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC #*I reinserted the feral recovery part. Our observation in our bee club (suburban inland S.F. Bay Area (California USA) was that upon arival of varroa, calls for swarm removal declined from several hundred a month to only a few. The last three years have seen an incredible restoration of our swarm calls during peak season (about now) to the 100+ range per month. These are feral swarms as our beekeepers are careful to avoid swarming from kept hives and most local beekeepers are members of the club. We have considerable urban and open space woodlands with much oak which forms favorable sites for cavity dwelling bees. User:Leonard G. 02:06, 30 Apr 2004 (UTC) # While improved breeds and IPM practices ''can'' reduce the dependency on miticides, I think it is premature to say that they ''have'' reduced dependency. Those breeds and practices have not yet been adopted widely enough to truly reduce the dependence. Evidence - the sales of Checkmite and Apistan remain strong and there is great clamor for the pending approval of Apilife Var. When sales of those products drop off, I think we will be able to say ''have reduced dependency''. #* Good point. I'm sure there are some stocks in many commercial outfits though, that have some resistance, especially if they have been buying Russian and other resistant queens, or using some feral stock. It's just that commercial beekeepers are not able to take the risk of not treating, and losing all those which do not have resistance. User:Pollinator 21:16, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC) #* I have been keeping bees without medications of any kind (4 years now) using top bar hives and wild swarms. Tanzanian hives are particularly mite resistant in my observation. For Kenyans, culling of drone brood gives sufficient control in my circumstances. User:Leonard G. 02:10, 30 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==How many bees in a hive?== The article first mentions thousands, later hundreds of drones usually living in a hive. Which number is correct? Puzzled, --User:219.207.92.201 13:28, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC) :The number is seasonally variable. At the end of the spring buildup, which is the normal swarm season for wild bees, and the time many queens have to be mated, the drone population is very high. Some strong hives will have many thousands of drones, as much as a third of the population. Weaker hives usually don't produce as high a proportion, but will still have the most in late spring. During summer the number of drones dwindles down. By fall there may be only a few hundred. In the southern US, a strong hive may keep a few drones all winter. Weaker hives or hives in the northern US and Canada will throw out all the drones to freeze or starve with the first cold weather. I've seen hives keep drones most of the winter in South Carolina, then throw them out during a March storm, so this latitude is about the turning point for overwintering drones. When drone rearing begins in spring, queen breeders start their season. Some will try to move the date ahead a bit by stimulative feeding of the hives, but not many drones will be raised until there are sources of good natural pollen. :An old beekeeper I knew a half century ago used to consider the drones worthless parasites in the hives and he would sit at the entrance of his hives and stab drones with toothpicks. My own experience has been that bees that are not allowed to have the normal component of drones do not thrive. I call it a loss of morale... User:Pollinator 14:55, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC) : Both and neither. It depends on: :# the race of honeybee (Some produce more drones than others) :# the health of the hive (A healthy colony about to swarm generally produces more drones than a colony in distress. The big exception is a colony which has lost its queen and develops a laying worker who can only lay drone eggs.) :# the time of year (In the height of summer when the colony is at its strongest, there could easily be thousands of drones in the hive. In the winter, that number drops down to almost none. Conventional wisdom used to be that all drones were kicked out and allowed to die each fall. Recent research has shown, however, that some races do keep some drones alive through the winter under some conditions. Research is continuing to determine if this is a universal occurence which was previously overlooked or if there is some unknown causal reason.) :# local climate (From the bees' point of view, winter comes much earlier in Alaska than in, say, Florida. There is some current research trying to correlate honeybee lifecycles to the concept of growing degree days.) : among other things. Hope that helps. User:Rossami 15:01, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC) ''(Looks like Pollinator was answering the same question. Darned edit conflicts)'' == edits by User:68.219.225.139 == In a series of edits today, anonymous user User:68.219.225.139 deleted most of the content of this article leaving two short (though coherent) paragraphs. I believe a great deal of good content was lost during that edit. I'm not averse to streamlining this article if it needs it but such a sweeping change should probably be discussed here. Thanks. User:Rossami User talk:Rossami 22:32, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC) :I can't see any reason for the big deletions. The paragraphs look like they need to be included.User:Gzuckier 16:17, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)
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HA | HB | HC | HD | HE | HF | HG | HI | HJ | HK | HL | HM | HN | HO | HP | HR | HS | HT | HU | HW | HX | HY | HZ |Words begining with Honeybee:
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