Denver Bee Keeping Society

FACTS ABOUT HONEYBEES

Bees maintain a temperature of 92-93 degrees Fahrenheit in their central brood nest regardless of whether the outside temperature is 110 or -40 degrees.
Honey bees produce beeswax from eight paired glands on the underside of their abdomen.
Honey bees can fly 2-5 miles from their hive to forage on flowers.
Honey bees are entirely herbivorous when they forage for nectar and pollen but can cannibalize their own brood when stressed.
Honey bees are almost the only bees with hairy compound eyes.
The brain of a worker honey bee is about a cubic millimeter but has the densest neuropile tissue of any animal.
Honey bees fly at 15 miles per hour.
Honey has been used for millenia as a topical dressing for wounds since microbes cannot live in it. Honey has even been used to embalm bodies such as that of Alexander the Great.
Fermented honey, known as Mead, is the most ancient fermented beverage. The term "honey moon" originated with the Norse practise of consuming large quantities of Mead during the first month of a marriage.
Bees cannot see the color red. But they do see a color we can’t: ultraviolet (UV). UV is what gives us a sunburn. But to a bee, it’s a whole different color. Since bees can’t see red, red flowers are pollinated in other ways, by bats, butterflies, birds, or the wind. Flowers that want to attract bees have colors that bees can see. Often, white flowers, which look plain to us, actually reflect UV light, so they look very pretty to the bees.
It would take about 1 ounce of honey to fuel a honeybee's flight around the world

The Honeybee is the only insect that produce food for humans.
A single honeybee will only produce approximately 1/12 teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
Approximately 7-8 pounds of honey are consumed by bees to produce 1 pound of beeswax.
Honey is the ONLY food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including water.
Honey never spoils
Honeybees travel over 55,000 miles and visits approx. 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey.
A honeybee will flap its wings about 11,400 times per minute creating the "buzz" that you hear

Queen Bee

There is only one queen per hive. The queen is the only bee with fully developed ovaries. A queen bee can live for 3-5 years. The queen may mate with up to 12-20 drones over a 1-2 day period of mating flights.The queen stores the sperm from these matings in her spermatheca, thus she has a lifetime supply and never mates again. A queen bee can control the flow of sperm to fertilize an egg when she is about to lay an egg. Honey bees have an unusual genetic sex determination system known as haplodiploidy. Worker bees are produced from fertilized eggs and have a full (double) set of chromosomes. The males, or drones, develop from unfertilized eggs and are thus haploid with only a single set of chromosomes.
On average she lays 1500 eggs per day. When she dies or becomes unproductive, the other bees will "make" a new queen by selecting a young larva and feeding it a diet of "royal jelly". For queen bees, it takes 16 days from egg to emergence.

Worker Bee

All worker bees are female, but they are not able to reproduce. Worker bees live for 4-9 months during the winter season, but only 6 weeks during the busy summer months (they literally work themselves to death). Nearly all of the bees in a hive are worker bees. A hive consists of 20,000 - 30,000 bees in the winter, and over 60,000 - 80,000 bees in the summer. The worker bee sequentially takes on a series of specific chores during their lifetime: housekeeper; nursemaid; construction worker; grocer; undertaker; guard; and finally, after 21 days they become a forager collecting pollen and nectar. For worker bees, it takes 21 days from egg to emergence. The worker bee has a barbed stinger that results in her death following stinging, therefore, she can only sting once.

Drone Bee

The job of the drone is truly understated.Wherein lives the treasure the drone is the messenger of the queen's DNA. These male bees are kept on standby during the summer with the hope of mating with a virgin queen. Bundled inside him is the offering of all the queens and their mating drones that have produced her.This is her contribution to the community to the gene pool. Because the drone has a barbed sex organ, mating is followed by death. The hive is comprised of about 10% drones at any given time. The drone does not have a stinger. Because they are of no use in the winter, drones are expelled from the hive in the autumn. It takes a drone 24 days to emerge.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Pollination

Agriculture depends greatly on the honeybee for pollination. Honeybees account for 80% of all insect pollination. Without such pollination, we would see a significant decrease in the yield of fruits and vegetables.

Pollen

Pollen is the male germ cells produced by all flowering plants for fertilization and plant embryo formation. The Honeybee uses pollen as a food. Pollen is one of the richest and purest natural foods, consisting of up to 35% protein, 10% sugars, carbohydrates, enzymes, minerals, and vitamins A (carotenes), B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (nicotinic acid), B5 (panothenic acid), C (ascorbic acid), H (biotin), and R (rutine). On average bees collect about 66 LBS of pollen per year, per hive. Pollen is there protien, honey their carbyhydrate

Nectar

Sweet fluid produced by flowers is 60% water and 40% solids. This is collected by the bees and converted into honey at 17 -18% moisture content.

Honey

Honey is used by the bees for food all year round. There are many types, colors and flavors of honey, depending upon its nectar source. The bees make honey from the nectar they collect from flowering trees and plants. Honey is an easily digestible, pure food. Honey is hydroscopic and has antibacterial qualities. Eating local honey can fend off allergies.

Beeswax

Secreted from glands, beeswax is used by the honeybee to build honey comb. It is used by humans in drugs, cosmetics, artists' materials, furniture polish and candles.

Propolis

Collected by honeybees from trees, the sticky resin is mixed with wax to make a sticky glue. The bees use this to seal cracks and repair their hive. It is used by humans as a health aid, and as the basis for fine wood varnishes.

Royal Jelly

The powerful, milky substance that turns an ordinary bee into a Queen Bee. It is made of digested pollen and honey or nectar mixed with a chemical secreted from a gland in a nursing bee's head. It commands premium prices rivaling imported caviar, and is used by some as a dietary supplement and fertility stimulant. It is loaded with all of the B vitamins.

Bee Sting

A bee has a poison gland in her abdomen. When she stings another insect (like a wasp), she can pull the stinger out of the wasp’s body and get away. So if a bee is fighting another insect, she can sting many times. But if a bee stings a person or a large animal (frog, raccoon, etc.) the stinger sticks in the animal’s tough skin and keeps pumping poison. The bee flies away, but she gets torn in half and dies. Bees only sting if they think they or their hive are in danger. If one bee is buzzing around you, she may smell perfume, soap, or hair spray and think the smell is nectar (food). She will check you out to see if she can find the nectar, but if you stand very still, she will realize there is no nectar and go away.

Africanized Honey Bees

These bees are a mix of European bees and African bees. We have European bees here. They make a lot of honey and don’t sting much, but they don’t live well in really hot areas. African bees were brought over to South America because they do like to live in the heat. When these two kinds of bees mated, the new bees (AHB’s) were smaller and very defensive. AHB’s act like normal bees while they are foraging for food, but if they feel their hive is in danger, they will defend it, attacking the people and animals for at least 100 feet around the hive. The AHB’s traveled up into Texas, but stopped and went up the Rio Grande River. It will be a few years before they get here. We already have yellow jackets, small wasps that are just as defensive as the AHB’s. So, killer bees are not so scary. Just stay away from bee hives, and tell a grown-up when you see one.

	FACTS ABOUT HONEYBEES Bees maintain a temperature of 92-93 degrees Fahrenheit in their central brood nest regardless of whether the outside temperature is 110 or -40 degrees. Honey bees produce beeswax from eight paired glands on the underside of their abdomen. Honey bees can fly 2-5 miles from their hive to forage on flowers. Honey bees are entirely herbivorous when they forage for nectar and pollen but can cannibalize their own brood when stressed. Honey bees are almost the only bees with hairy compound eyes. The brain of a worker honey bee is about a cubic millimeter but has the densest neuropile tissue of any animal. Honey bees fly at 15 miles per hour. Honey has been used for millenia as a topical dressing for wounds since microbes cannot live in it. Honey has even been used to embalm bodies such as that of Alexander the Great. Fermented honey, known as Mead, is the most ancient fermented beverage. The term "honey moon" originated with the Norse practise of consuming large quantities of Mead during the first month of a marriage. Bees cannot see the color red. But they do see a color we can’t: ultraviolet (UV). UV is what gives us a sunburn. But to a bee, it’s a whole different color. Since bees can’t see red, red flowers are pollinated in other ways, by bats, butterflies, birds, or the wind. Flowers that want to attract bees have colors that bees can see. Often, white flowers, which look plain to us, actually reflect UV light, so they look very pretty to the bees. It would take about 1 ounce of honey to fuel a honeybee's flight around the world The Honeybee is the only insect that produce food for humans. A single honeybee will only produce approximately 1/12 teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. Approximately 7-8 pounds of honey are consumed by bees to produce 1 pound of beeswax. Honey is the ONLY food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including water. Honey never spoils Honeybees travel over 55,000 miles and visits approx. 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey. A honeybee will flap its wings about 11,400 times per minute creating the "buzz" that you hear Queen Bee There is only one queen per hive. The queen is the only bee with fully developed ovaries. A queen bee can live for 3-5 years. The queen may mate with up to 12-20 drones over a 1-2 day period of mating flights.The queen stores the sperm from these matings in her spermatheca, thus she has a lifetime supply and never mates again. A queen bee can control the flow of sperm to fertilize an egg when she is about to lay an egg. Honey bees have an unusual genetic sex determination system known as haplodiploidy. Worker bees are produced from fertilized eggs and have a full (double) set of chromosomes. The males, or drones, develop from unfertilized eggs and are thus haploid with only a single set of chromosomes. On average she lays 1500 eggs per day. When she dies or becomes unproductive, the other bees will "make" a new queen by selecting a young larva and feeding it a diet of "royal jelly". For queen bees, it takes 16 days from egg to emergence. Worker Bee All worker bees are female, but they are not able to reproduce. Worker bees live for 4-9 months during the winter season, but only 6 weeks during the busy summer months (they literally work themselves to death). Nearly all of the bees in a hive are worker bees. A hive consists of 20,000 - 30,000 bees in the winter, and over 60,000 - 80,000 bees in the summer. The worker bee sequentially takes on a series of specific chores during their lifetime: housekeeper; nursemaid; construction worker; grocer; undertaker; guard; and finally, after 21 days they become a forager collecting pollen and nectar. For worker bees, it takes 21 days from egg to emergence. The worker bee has a barbed stinger that results in her death following stinging, therefore, she can only sting once. Drone Bee The job of the drone is truly understated.Wherein lives the treasure the drone is the messenger of the queen's DNA. These male bees are kept on standby during the summer with the hope of mating with a virgin queen. Bundled inside him is the offering of all the queens and their mating drones that have produced her.This is her contribution to the community to the gene pool. Because the drone has a barbed sex organ, mating is followed by death. The hive is comprised of about 10% drones at any given time. The drone does not have a stinger. Because they are of no use in the winter, drones are expelled from the hive in the autumn. It takes a drone 24 days to emerge. GLOSSARY OF TERMS Pollination Agriculture depends greatly on the honeybee for pollination. Honeybees account for 80% of all insect pollination. Without such pollination, we would see a significant decrease in the yield of fruits and vegetables. Pollen Pollen is the male germ cells produced by all flowering plants for fertilization and plant embryo formation. The Honeybee uses pollen as a food. Pollen is one of the richest and purest natural foods, consisting of up to 35% protein, 10% sugars, carbohydrates, enzymes, minerals, and vitamins A (carotenes), B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (nicotinic acid), B5 (panothenic acid), C (ascorbic acid), H (biotin), and R (rutine). On average bees collect about 66 LBS of pollen per year, per hive. Pollen is there protien, honey their carbyhydrate Nectar Sweet fluid produced by flowers is 60% water and 40% solids. This is collected by the bees and converted into honey at 17 -18% moisture content. Honey Honey is used by the bees for food all year round. There are many types, colors and flavors of honey, depending upon its nectar source. The bees make honey from the nectar they collect from flowering trees and plants. Honey is an easily digestible, pure food. Honey is hydroscopic and has antibacterial qualities. Eating local honey can fend off allergies. Beeswax Secreted from glands, beeswax is used by the honeybee to build honey comb. It is used by humans in drugs, cosmetics, artists' materials, furniture polish and candles. Propolis Collected by honeybees from trees, the sticky resin is mixed with wax to make a sticky glue. The bees use this to seal cracks and repair their hive. It is used by humans as a health aid, and as the basis for fine wood varnishes. Royal Jelly The powerful, milky substance that turns an ordinary bee into a Queen Bee. It is made of digested pollen and honey or nectar mixed with a chemical secreted from a gland in a nursing bee's head. It commands premium prices rivaling imported caviar, and is used by some as a dietary supplement and fertility stimulant. It is loaded with all of the B vitamins. Bee Sting A bee has a poison gland in her abdomen. When she stings another insect (like a wasp), she can pull the stinger out of the wasp’s body and get away. So if a bee is fighting another insect, she can sting many times. But if a bee stings a person or a large animal (frog, raccoon, etc.) the stinger sticks in the animal’s tough skin and keeps pumping poison. The bee flies away, but she gets torn in half and dies. Bees only sting if they think they or their hive are in danger. If one bee is buzzing around you, she may smell perfume, soap, or hair spray and think the smell is nectar (food). She will check you out to see if she can find the nectar, but if you stand very still, she will realize there is no nectar and go away. Africanized Honey Bees These bees are a mix of European bees and African bees. We have European bees here. They make a lot of honey and don’t sting much, but they don’t live well in really hot areas. African bees were brought over to South America because they do like to live in the heat. When these two kinds of bees mated, the new bees (AHB’s) were smaller and very defensive. AHB’s act like normal bees while they are foraging for food, but if they feel their hive is in danger, they will defend it, attacking the people and animals for at least 100 feet around the hive. The AHB’s traveled up into Texas, but stopped and went up the Rio Grande River. It will be a few years before they get here. We already have yellow jackets, small wasps that are just as defensive as the AHB’s. So, killer bees are not so scary. Just stay away from bee hives, and tell a grown-up when you see one.