The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is an insect belonging to the order Hymenoptera and the subfamily of noble bees (Apinae).
The general appearance of the insect can be seen in the honey bee photo.
For a long time it has been used by humans as a source of honey.
This property of the bee is reflected in the specific name of the insect - both in Russian and in its Latin version (mellifera - honey-bringing or mellifica -). IN ancient times For many peoples, honey was the only food with a sweet taste.
But even today, despite the fact that people have learned to extract sugar from sugar beets and cane, the value of bee honey has not been lost.
The healing properties of honey have long been known to people, have become increasingly used in medicine. Honey has widespread use in treating colds and illnesses gastrointestinal tract, for healing wounds and burns.
The healing properties of honey are associated with the presence in it of certain substances secreted by bees, and in negligible quantities. Artificial honey, being made from a mixture of various sugars without natural ones, of course, does not have such properties, although its taste is not much different from bee honey.
In addition to the main beekeeping product - honey - the honey bee produces a special one, just like honey, which has healing properties and is used for. This poison has long been used in medicine to treat diseases associated with damage to ligaments and joints, rheumatism, radiculitis and others.
In addition to producing honey, the honey bee is a source of such a product as wax, from which it builds its nest. Wax is also widely used by humans: it is used in the electrical industry, in the manufacture of varnishes and paints, it is used to coat molds for casting cast iron products, lubricants, etc.
Of course, one cannot fail to mention the most important aspect of the activity of bees - they pollinate cultivated plants. Not only in Russia, but all over the world you can find nests of wild bees located in tree hollows or rock crevices.
In ancient times, people did not engage in beekeeping - the rules for keeping honey bees that contributed to the preservation of the brood were unknown. Human activity could be called “hunting” bees. This “hunt” consisted of a person finding bee nests and destroying them, taking the honey and wax for himself.
An image of such a hunt was found in one of the caves in Spain, and it is quite respectable in age - several thousand years.
In later times, people began to use logs with which they carried bees from the forest. And even later, from these logs, framing them with tree bark and firing them with clay, they began to build hives and populate them with swarms of bees. To collect honey and wax at the end of the season, the bees were “smoked out” with sulfur and the hives were destroyed.
A real revolution in the region was accomplished at the turn of the 18th–19th centuries by the outstanding Russian beekeeper P.I. Prokopovich, who created the first frame hives. As the name of the hives suggests, the honeycombs were placed in a movable frame that could be pulled out, removed and changed without destroying either the bees or the brood. Thus, for the first time in history, rules for keeping honey bees were tacitly established, excluding their possible destruction.
Honey bee hive and nest
As is well known, the honey bee (honey bee class) is an arthropod of the class of insects with a very complex swarm structure.
The main thing in the hive is the fertile female (or queen), besides her there are worker bees (sterile females), as well as males (or drones).
The queen differs primarily in size: she is much larger than worker bees, it lacks an apparatus for collecting pollen and glands for secreting wax, and the sting is less developed than that of workers.
Drone - male honey bee- a later inhabitant, it is born only at the end of summer.
In the fall, after the mating flight and fertilization of young females, when the process of reproduction of the honey bee begins, the worker bees kill the drones and throw them out of the nest. All activities inside the hive are carried out by worker bees.
The structure of a nest in a hive is a rather complex mechanism. It consists of cells arranged in vertical rows called honeycombs. All honeycombs, except the outermost ones, are double-sided, while the outermost ones have cells only on one side. These cells are built from wax, which is secreted by glands located on the abdomen of worker bees.
The cells created by bees are hexagonal in shape, and the bottom of the cells is diamond-shaped, with sharp corners of approximately 70°. Mathematical calculations have shown that with the least consumption of “building material”, this design is the optimal solution to the problem of constructing a cell containing maximum quantity content. Moreover, these cells serve both for breeding new brood and for storing basic products - honey and bee bread.
Family structure and reproduction of honey bees
Honey production in hives is achieved by processing collected flower nectar. The honey bee uses this honey for its own nutrition, and a separately deposited mixture of pollen with a small amount of honey, called beebread, is used as food for the larvae.
In addition to the usual cells, each nest has larger ones - for breeding male honey bees. For the development of females, there are so-called “queen cells” - huge cells of irregular shape.
In order to prevent unfavorable conditions, in which the development of honey bee larvae can occur, the walls of the hive are made airtight - all the cracks in them are coated with propolis or bee glue.
Propolis, which contains balsamic substances from the shells of pollen grains, resinous substances secreted by plants, and an admixture of wax, is extracted from the buds of trees or plants, and sometimes from the wood itself, the fibers of which bees squeeze out with their jaws. It is used by bees to polish combs and seal small cracks in hives.
The laying of eggs by the female occurs in a special place in the hive, where separate, well-ventilated and heated areas for combs are created, called the “brood zone,” which is surrounded by a ring consisting of cells with beebread. This is the only place where beebread accumulates; honey is deposited in the remaining cells. Reproduction of the honey bee occurs in the following stages.
The female lays eggs, from which larvae hatch on the fourth day. Feeding the larvae with “bee milk” is carried out by all worker bees. This “milk” is a product of the secretion of special glands that the honey bee possesses, but the female is also fed with the same secretions. Next, the larvae are divided into those from which females will subsequently emerge - they feed on “milk” throughout the entire development period, and the rest - these are already with fourth day lives feed on beebread.
The honey bee produces a lot of energy, and it is for this reason that the temperature in the nest is constantly maintained at a high temperature. In the area with brood it reaches 35°C. With such high temperature a constant flow of air is created in the hive - this is facilitated by special “fan” bees, which continuously move their wings.
If the temperature of the nest increases and exceeds a certain level, to maintain climatic conditions necessary for the development of the larvae, other bees are included, which for this purpose can even crawl out onto a plank near the entrance. Bees perform many different jobs for the normal functioning of the family.
Some of them store water in their crops, so that if necessary, they moisten the honeycombs with it to increase air humidity, others are engaged in repairing problems that arise in the nest, and still others help in cleaning worker bees.
Ontogenesis of honey bees
Of course, the main group of bees forages for food - collects nectar and pollen from various plants during their flowering period.
This happens as follows. As soon as one of the bees finds a food source rich in unpollinated flowers, it lets all the others know about it with the help of so-called dances.
After exploring the territory, the bee, returning to the hive, makes certain movements, while others begin to repeat these movements, after which all the bees fly away.
If the food source is close to the hive, the bee makes movements in a circle, and if it is far away, then it writes a figure that from a distance looks like a figure eight, but more reminiscent of the letter “fita” of the old Russian alphabet. Describing a semicircle, the bee begins to move along the “middle stick” of this letter, while wagging its abdomen.
In this case, the frequency of “wagging” indicates the distance from the hive to the food source - the further the source, the more frequent it is. By leaning at a certain angle to the vertical, the honey bee thereby shows the angle relative to the sun at which it is necessary to fly towards the food source.
Although it would be more correct to say that the direction is indicated rather in relation to vibrations of polarized light, inaccessible to perception human feelings. In addition, a bee that visited a flower meadow was saturated with the corresponding smell, which, in turn, indicates which flowers in that place should be visited. If the food source does not have a specific odor (which may be due to its artificial origin), then the bee marks it with secretions of the odorous gland, and when moving around the hive, it protrudes this gland.
Previously, people believed that a bee from birth performs one specific job. Now we see that this is not so. By marking the bees, scientists found that they have age polyethism. At the very beginning of life (the first few days), the bee cleans the old cells, licking them until they shine.
On the fourth day, the insect already begins to feed the adult larvae with beebread, and does this approximately until the glands that secrete “milk” develop - then it begins to feed the queen or young larvae with this “milk”. This happens approximately on the eighth day of her life.
After this, the honey bee begins to take food: some insects take the food brought by worker bees from the entrance, others take it to storage cells. The honey bee takes food from other bees for about a week, and after that it begins to either remove garbage or clean other bees.
Starting from approximately the twelfth day, wax glands in worker bees reach their maximum development over the course of a week. At this time, as wax accumulates and secretes, the bees are engaged in construction work. Then, with the development of poisonous glands in bees, insects begin to guard the hive, located at the entrance. And only at the end of life, having reached a certain maturity, worker bees begin to fly. For this period of life, long and gradual preparation takes place, which consists in the biological development of honey bees.
Young insects periodically fly out of the hive and, rising slightly into the air, try to hold on, with their heads turned towards the hive. The honey bee, surprisingly, flies for a very short part of its life.
For example, summer bees spend a total of several tens of hours in the air out of their allotted six weeks of life. At a later stage of development (starting from two weeks), the honey bee collects pollen and nectar from plant flowers, bringing water and sticky resinous substances to the hive.
The structure of the honey bee and the peculiarities of perception of the surrounding world
Another feature that characterizes the structure of the honey bee is of interest.
So, in order to find the plants it needs and examine small objects in the absence of bright lighting, bees have some visual features.
On the sides of the head, the imago (the so-called worker bee, queen or drone) has two compound eyes, which consist of a large number of small eyes that perceive the image in a mosaic form.
In addition, the imago has three simple eyes located on the crown - they serve as a kind of addition to the complex eyes, facilitating the perception of the degree of light intensity.
With their vision, bees can clearly distinguish that part of the solar spectrum that is invisible to humans (ultraviolet). In addition, it is believed that bees are quite good at distinguishing colors such as yellow, turquoise, blue, violet and ultraviolet.
Depending on the nature of the reflection of ultraviolet rays in the eyes of bees, the colors perceived by them appear completely different than to humans. For example, the honey bee represents blue and violet as four different shades, it can confuse red with violet and black, and perceives green and orange as yellow.
In addition to differences in the perception of color, there is a peculiarity in how insects represent the shapes of objects. The honey bee remembers well only a form that reminds it of open flower petals.
It has been proven that the flowers of honey plants attract insects to the nectar they secrete both with their bright color and aroma. A well-developed sense of smell is another characteristic feature biology of the honey bee. The corresponding organs are located on their antennae. By smell, bees not only find the plants from which they collect honey, but also distinguish between foreign bees and representatives of their own family.
The following specific property of the structure of the honey bee is also interesting. Special appendages near the insect's oral cavity are designed in such a way that they make it easy to lick the smallest droplets of nectar with the tongue, not only in open flowers, but also in more recessed parts with the help of a special proboscis formed by the lower lip and lower jaws. This proboscis in bees has a length of 5.5 to 6.4 mm, and in some individuals it reaches a size of 6.9 and even 7.2 mm.
Through the receiving mouthparts and esophagus, nectar collected from flowers enters the honey sac, in which the honey bee delivers it to the hive, where it passes it on to young bees. Bees collect not only nectar from plants, but also pollen, which replaces their protein food. The structure of the honey bee (its body) has one more feature - it is covered with thick hairs (honey bee photo).
When a bee lands on a flower, it accumulates between these hairs. large number pollen grains, which bees clean off with their legs and place in special recesses on the legs (baskets). When collecting pollen, bees moisten it with nectar, due to which these grains are held quite firmly in the baskets, remaining in the form of dense balls called pollen.
Upon returning to the hive with pollen, the bees dump the lumps of pollen they brought into the honeycomb cells. Here the young individuals get down to business, immediately compact the pollen, and when the cell is full, fill it with honey. Actually, this pollen, called beebread, is the source of protein nutrition for the bee colony.
As for water, during the bribe the bees receive it in sufficient quantities, secreting it from the nectar that they collect from flowers and bring to the hive. However, when there is no bribe, and at the same time a lot of larvae are raised in the colony, the bees experience difficulty in obtaining water and are forced to separately bring it to the hive. The settlement of bees occurs in whole swarms: if a young female appears in the nest, the old one, along with some of the workers, leaves it and settles in a new place.
Of course, the information about honey bees as representatives of the class of insects that we provided in this article, as well as the rules for keeping honey bees, are general in nature. The paths and stages of life of individual individuals differ from each other, although general pattern remains unchanged, and the order in which the bees perform the relevant work is constant.
Do people often think about the benefits bees bring to nature?
Everyone knows why they are beneficial to people. Many people associate them with honey and other bee products, which are used for various purposes: in the treatment of diseases, cooking, cosmetics, simply as food or as a dietary supplement.
Every beekeeper has friends who will say that we don’t need these products, we don’t use them. How then can you explain to them what the benefits of bees are?
Not every person knows about the value of honey-bearing insects in nature. But on planet Earth, the lives of bees and flower plants are closely connected. They cannot exist without each other.
The reasons for this phenomenon: uncontrolled use of pesticides, pesticides, breeding work to create self-pollinating and genetically modified plants and agricultural production. crops
Scientists have already calculated that the further disappearance of honey insects will lead to a deterioration in global food security throughout the world.
More than 20 thousand species of flowering plants will disappear from the Earth, which will undermine the foundations of the Earth's ecosystems.
So don't forget about the benefits bees provide and remember that they provide more than just honey.
You can watch the film “The Silence of the Bees” about what will happen when bees disappear, about the problems that concern beekeepers today.
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To the deepest regret of beekeepers, there are many diseases in bees. However, their timely treatment helps to get rid of the disease.
The first sign of the disease is the strange behavior of the bee family. It is important to understand that inaction will most likely lead to the extinction of the entire family. Such diseases do not arise spontaneously. They can occur in certain seasons, when pests are active. Well, sources of pathological diseases can be foulbrood, calcareous brood and even paralysis. Such bee health problems require serious medical intervention.
Old bees are especially susceptible to disease, although diseases can occur even in pupae and eggs. Such problems are often solved only through preventative measures. The cause of the development of infections is often the spread of plant microorganisms, namely fungi, viral infections, and various bacteria.
Preventive methods carried out in early spring show themselves to be the best in treatment. All treatment measures must be done comprehensively, combining with the ear behind the apiary.
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26.05.2016
Do people often think about the benefits bees bring?
Many people associate them with honey and other bee products, which are used for various purposes: in the treatment of diseases, cooking, cosmetics, simply as food or as a dietary supplement.
Of all the insects living on the planet, the bee is one of the most useful for humans. The worker bee not only provides healing products that are unique in their composition, but also pollinates plants, contributing to the continuation of life on Earth.
All bee products are natural antibiotics. They, unlike pharmaceuticals that destroy pathogenic and beneficial microflora with equal force, act selectively, preventing the growth and development of harmful microorganisms. In the process of life, a bee produces the following substances: honey, bee bread, royal jelly, propolis, wax, bee venom. Even a dead bee has a row healing properties. Medicinal tinctures are made from bee pestilence. Thus, bees benefit humans by producing all these healing products.
But not every person knows about another value of honey-bearing insects in nature.
On planet Earth, the lives of bees and flower plants are closely interconnected. Flowers provide nectar and pollen to bees, and in return they pollinate them. It is estimated that the benefits from bee pollination of entomophilous plants are many times greater than the cost of all the honey collected throughout the world.
More than 200 thousand species of our flora require pollination. First of all, these are those that cannot bear fruit and produce seeds without insects.
Products of entomophilous crops are the main source of vitamins and minerals. They provide 98% of people's vitamin C needs; more than 70% is in lipids, as well as most of the needs for vitamins E, K, A and B.
These products also satisfy our calcium needs - by 58%; fluorine – by 62%; iron - 29%, and many other elements.
It must be said that these crops provide people with 35% of all world agricultural products. Thanks to the pollinating work of honey bees, the yield of many crops increases: buckwheat and sunflower – by 50%; watermelons, melons and pumpkins – 100%; A fruit trees and shrubs - 10 times. And this is far from full list the benefits bees provide.
This means that people get thousands of tons of vegetables, fruits and seeds thanks to bees.
Pollination by bees also improves the quality of seeds, increasing their size, juiciness and taste qualities fruits The benefits that bees bring when pollinating crops are 10-15 times greater than the direct income from beekeeping.
Scientists estimate that bees' contribution to the global economy as plant pollinators is worth about $160 billion annually. IN European Union it was estimated at 15 billion. All this is tens of times higher than the cost of honey and all beekeeping products combined.
But the trouble is that people easily calculate the cost of honey and all beekeeping products on the world market. And the benefits that bees bring from pollinating plants are not visible at first glance. We buy vegetables, fruits and other agricultural products, eat them, and easily forget that only thanks to bees they got to our table.
Thanks to the bee, man developed agricultural activities. Even the most modern technology cannot replace them and do the job so delicately.
The benefits of bees are obvious. Man cannot survive without these hardworking insects. The bee works every day, dying in flight.
Unfortunately, according to official statistics, more than half of the bee species have disappeared over the past 100 years. And today there is a threat of extinction of honey insects all over the world. In many countries, the number of bee colonies is declining. The reasons for this phenomenon: uncontrolled use of pesticides, pesticides, breeding work to create self-pollinating and genetically modified plants and crops.
Despite the fact that in our time in many countries, in particular in Germany and the USA, there are programs to support beekeeping as one of the most effective ways increasing plant productivity, we increasingly hear about the collapse of bee colonies. Bees are dying en masse. And now Chinese farmers have already experienced for themselves that pollinating plants without bees is almost a feat.
Although the problem exists throughout the world, it has become particularly acute in the mountainous Maoxian County of China's Sichuan Province, where all wild bees have died out and farmers are forced to pollinate apple orchards by hand.
Pollination of apple trees in Maoxian must be completed within five days, otherwise the trees will not bear fruit. Now every year thousands of residents come to the gardens to do this hard work.
Using homemade pollination devices made from chicken feathers or cigarette filters dipped in plastic bottles filled with pollen, one person can pollinate 5-10 trees per day. Children also participate in the process. They climb trees to reach higher branches.
The challenges facing farmers in Maoxian provide a glimpse of what could happen on a global scale.
Continued loss of honey insects will lead to worsening global food security throughout the world. More than 20 thousand species of flowering plants will disappear from the Earth, which will undermine the foundations of the Earth's ecosystems. And 4 years after the complete disappearance of this beneficial insect, according to scientists, humanity will die from hunger and lack of oxygen.
Therefore, let's take care of bees, whose benefits for humans are invaluable.
After a long time cold winter The long-awaited spring is coming. During the day the sun warms up, the birds chirp loudly, the animals begin the rut, the bees fly out of the hives, they need to make their first flight and free their bellies from the droppings that have accumulated in them over the winter, and in the evenings more frosts come.
Today I want to tell you about an amazing bee. How much benefit does this little bee bring?
History of beekeeping:
Beekeeping came to us from ancient times. Beekeeping first appeared in Egypt. French Egyptologist J.F. talks about this. Champollion.
He managed to decipher papyrus scrolls that have come down to us from ancient egypt. Also preserved ancient chronicles on a large slab, which is now kept in Sicily.
From these scrolls one could read that beekeeping existed in Egypt already in the 2nd millennium BC. During excavations, emblems and tombs of the pharaohs were also found, where a bee was depicted. From here we see that the Egyptians worshiped the bee; they considered it sacred.
In his chronicles, the Egyptian priest Manetho in the 4th century BC wrote “How can one pass by the slopes of mountains, where flowers shimmer with all the colors of the rainbow.” It is in such beautiful places bees lived.
Ancient people looked for the hollows of wild bees and collected honey that way. Over time, in Egypt they learned to weave beehives from twigs, used ceramic beehives, and also made beehives from baked clay.
The Egyptians knew well the usefulness of honey and even medicinal properties not only honey, but also wax and propolis.
In the 5th century, bees were brought from Egypt to Greece. The Greeks began to study beekeeping more deeply. They learned to distinguish the queen from the worker bee and the drone.
In the 6th millennium BC, beekeeping occupied most of Europe. The Greeks and Egyptians began to use the transportation of bees for honey collection.
The Greeks had the state law of Solon, which indicated at what distance apiaries should be placed.
Beekeeping in Rus':
In the 10th – 11th centuries, beekeeping appeared in our country. In Rus', bees were kept in logs, then dismantled nest boxes appeared.
Beekeeping grew faster and faster every year. Apiaries were installed near homes, and when flowering began, they were taken out to the field.
The reproduction of bees began to be controlled. The frame hive was invented in 1814. It was invented by the famous Russian beekeeper P.I. Prokopovich.
Peter Ivanovich began to engage in beekeeping in 1798, when he became very ill in the service, he returned home, bought land and bees.
Pyotr Ivanovich was engaged in beekeeping for more than 60 years, that is, until the end of his life. The world's first frame hive was made here by Prokopovich in 1815.
This is not all the merits of Pyotr Ivanovich; in 1828, he opened the first beekeeping school in Russia.
Since 1827, his articles began to appear. After his death in 1866, his book on the breeding and care of bees was published. In 1889, a factory was opened in Vyatka for the production of frame hives.
For many years, honey and wax were exported in huge quantities to other countries.
Life of a Bee:
The life of a bee has many peculiarities and secrets. Bees are divided into worker bee, queen bee and drone.
The worker bee does all the work, collects nectar, pollen (pollen drenched in honey turns into bee bread); in medicine, bee bread cures many diseases. The worker bee also removes dead bees from the hives and processes the cells.
IN hot weather blows on the taphole, so it circulates air. During the summer period, a bee colony can secrete wax from three kilograms or more.
If cracks appear in the hive, the bees cover them with propolis. Propolis is bee glue. And if a mouse gets into the hive, the bees kill it with poison and wall it up in a propolis crypt. With such a lot of work, the worker bee does not live long, about six weeks.
The drone is a large and thick body. The drone does not perform any work. Its only job is to mate with the queen.
If he does not mate with the queen, then a cruel fate awaits him in the fall. The worker bees will be forced to pull it out of the hive and seal the entrance. Thus preparing for winter.
The queen bee is the owner of the hive and lives up to five years. Places larvae in clean cells.
She begins laying eggs around March. The queen can lay up to 1,500 thousand eggs per day. In case of queen loss, bees lay queen cells.
Medicinal value of honey:
In 377 BC, the scientist Hippocrates studied the medicinal value of honey.
Later he described that honey can cure diseases of the stomach, liver, and purulent wounds.
But jumping ahead a little, I can say from my own experience that honey really cures stomach diseases.
My dad had severe stomach pain for many years, so that he wouldn’t eat, his stomach would make itself known, and as always, people don’t want to go to the hospital.
And somehow, in the pasture, he met a beekeeper, as I remember now, his last name was Orlov, he was already an elderly grandfather, he gave one hive to my dad, so he began to breed bees and began to eat honey every day, and his long-term stomach illness went away.
Now my dad is retired, many ailments have come with old age, but his stomach still doesn’t hurt.
Dear friends, in the following posts I will tell you what diseases it helps with bee venom, royal jelly, honey.