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exposed to the summer heat - or where food supplies are short – will mean tetchy bees . Sting time .
The queen bee is determined by diet . “ They are fed what ’ s known as royal jelly … think of it as bee milk . The other females are fed royal jelly to start with , then switched to worker jelly . Royal jelly lite , I assume .
The hive might produce more than one queen , but the first queen to emerge will immediately sting and kill the others .
Swarms
A swarm arises in good times when there ’ s enough food and water to sustain another hive . In that case a second queen bee will be produced , and fly off taking half the hive with her – a swarm .
Beekeepers need to walk a fine line , leaving enough honey in the hive to sustain it , should hard times occur when food sources are scarce . At the same time , if they leave too much honey in the hive , bees will take it as a sign that times are good and it will almost invariably lead to a swarm .
Worker bees
Bees won ’ t leave the hive if the temperature is below 13 ° C or it ’ s too windy . If it starts raining they will return to the hive . Whoever their union rep is , he ’ s good .
Aside from the queen bee , the hive is made up predominantly of females which are divided into foragers , and those that stay in the hive . Foragers fly within a 5km radius , collecting pollen and nectar – pollen is their first choice because it has a higher sugar content .
Production line
Back at the hive they pass it to the worker bee in the hive through what ’ s known as trophallaxis – the movement of food from one mouth to another . The in-hive workers deposit the nectar in a cell while the forager heads back out . To ripen honey in the hive workers will flap their wings to create an air flow , to evaporate the water content in the nectar , making it more viscous . When the cell is full they will put a cap on it to preserve it . Voila ! A bee production line .
The males
All the time the male bees , the drones ( of which there are a few hundred compared to thousands of females ), just sit back , are fed by the females , and watch the action . Occasionally they fly off looking for a virgin queen bee to seduce – as you do .
It sounds a cushy job , but there ’ s a catch . When the male does find a willing queen bee , they mate in mid-air , which no doubt brings its own complications . But here ’ s the catch .
“ The male has what ’ s known as an endophallus – in layman ’ s terms , an inverted penis ,” Elizabeth explains , scrunching her nose up . “ When they mate , the penis breaks off and is embedded in the queen . The queen then mates with other drones , usually about 12 .”
So , what happens to the poor penis-less male who up till five minutes ago was enjoying the life of Riley . Does the old fella grow back , for starters ?
“ His internal organs are ruptured when the penis breaks and he dies .”
And that , ladies and gentlemen , is called going out with a bang .
Some of the cells in a hive contain honey , while other are used to provide a nursery for the next generation of bees . Photo courtesy www . talkingwithbees . com
More Information
The Department of Primary Industries has two new online beekeeping publications – “ Healthy Bees ” and “ Bee-Ag Skills ”, available at www . tocal . nsw . edu . au / publications .
More information on a huge range of beekeeping topics is available at www . dpi . nsw . gov . au / agriculture / livestock / honey-bees
12 Australian Stonefruit Grower | April 2017 summerfruit . com . au