Page 68 - AG 7-2011 Revised 2016

Honey Bee Honey Bee

Photo Courtesy of UNIVAR Photo Courtesy of UNIVAR

Honey Bee

Photo Courtesy of UNIVAR Photo Courtesy of UNIVAR

1.Antenna- short 6.Thorax- holding wings Honey Bee

2.Eyes- 2 compound and 3 simple eyes 7.Petiole- none 7
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3.Head 8.Abdomen- stripes
1
4.Legs- 6 9.Color- fuzzy yellow brown to black
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5.Wings- 2 pair 10.Other- barbed stinger
Drawing by Andrew Schaible
Life Cycle
The queen bee can lay as many as 1500 to 2000 eggs a day, placing one egg
in each cell in the brood comb. Under ordinary conditions, the worker bee has
a developmental period of about three weeks. Drones develop in 24 days, and
queens in 15 days. If drones are kept in a queen-less hive, they live three to four
months, but normally their lives are very short. Workers live 5 weeks (during
peak honey season) to 3 months.

Actual size 5/8”

Honey Bees are not indigenous to North America but were introduced by early immigrants.
They are responsible for honey, beeswax and most important of all, the fertilization of many
of our crop-bearing plants. Bees are social insects living in large colonies of 20,000 to 80,000
individuals. There are three castes in the bee society: the workers, the queen and the males
(drones). Most people only see the workers. The queen may live as long as five years, but
is less productive after the second year. New queens are reared on “royal jelly”, a special
secretion, those becoming workers only receive this special mix for three days.

The Africanized honey bee is closely related to the European honey bee used in agriculture for
crop pollination and honey production. The two types of bees look the same and their behavior
is similar in many respects. Neither is likely to sting when gathering nectar and pollen from
flowers, but both will sting in defense if provoked. A swarm of bees in flight or briefly at rest
seldom bothers people. However, all bees become defensive when they settle, begin producing
wax comb and raising young.

Bees are responsible for more deaths in the United States than any other insect, due to allergic
reactions.

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