about my bees and a bit of everything
Varroa mite is a problem for bee colonies and something bee keepers all become aware of really fast. Their actual name is Varroa Destructor which gives you a bit of an idea of just how devastating having Varroa can be. Everywhere in the world, except …
Whilst we were away our apiary manager looked at the bees for us and recommended we feed them a bit more sugar solution. If forage is low we need to make sure that there is food available for the bees to build up for the …
since its summer the busiest bees in the hive are the workers. I didn’t realise until recently that there are 5 different types of worker bees. Though knowing this does mean that Bee Movie know makes more sense to me.
It depends on age, different jobs depending on skills and knowledge I guess, the more familiar you are with how things work the greater the opportunities there are. I think when reviewing this structure it also depends on strength and resistance.
Here is how it works
|
Age (approx)
|
Function
|
Activities
|
|
1-5 days
|
House Bee
|
Cleaning
out cells and “polishing” them ready for egg laying or pollen/honey storage
General cleaning and tidying duties
(e.g. removing debris) |
|
5-14 days
|
Nurse Bee
|
Receive
food from returning foragers and provide newly hatched larvae with brood food (or royal jelly for queen larvae)
Feed the
queen and drones
Tend the queen, feeding and grooming
her and removing her waste |
|
10-14 days
|
Builder
|
Cell
building and repair (after the wax glands have matured) |
|
14-21 days
|
Guard Bee
|
Protection
of the colony. Guard bees will guard the entrance and fly locally to warn off intruders
Guard bees
will also “fan” the entrance of a hive with their wings and collect water to cool the colony by evaporating it by “fanning” their wings |
|
21+ days
|
Foragers
|
Find and collect pollen, nectar and
water to bring back to the colony |
