Interesting facts from the life of bees for schoolchildren. All about bees (interesting facts)

The statement of the ancients is known that honey is the food of the Gods, which falls in the form of dew from the sky. But what is honey without bees? A lot is said and written about bees, about these workers. Not less - about beekeeping. Moreover, bees are among the most studied creatures on the planet (except for humans, of course). The world of bees is infinitely diverse.

They have achieved a lot in creating their own habitat, skillfully regulated, and reliably and stably maintain it. There are many varieties of bees, but the honey bee is popular, it is also called "home", creating this divine product.

Video: Processing bees

honey bees

A hive is a real home for bees. As soon as a swarm appears in the hive, all the honey bees get to work, building wax combs. They contain honey, pollen from flowers, and there may be larvae. By the way, the release of wax is directly dependent on the nutrition of the bee.

Each individual in this huge family is responsible for his own work.

When the beekeeper is faced with the need for new large areas of combs, dry land for bees is purchased - hive frames in which the bees have already built ready-made combs so that the domestic honey bee does not waste time building combs, but collects nectar and makes honey non-stop.

A word about northern bees

The northern bee feels great in the Urals and the Far East, in Siberia and Altai, and where cold, lasting for six months, winters. The northern bee belongs to the Central Russian breed. It is also called Central European. It lives in the forests from time immemorial, so it is accustomed to the harsh climate.

The northern bee survives without problems in difficult conditions, when honey plants bloom for a short time. The selection of nectar by them depends on weather conditions. The northern bee is one of the most productive on a global scale. And its phenomenal vitality, combined with the concentration of the best honey plants, is especially valuable.

And the honey that the northern bee makes is completely unique. Such characteristics are practically inaccessible to bees of other breeds. The northern bee creates quite strong colonies. Her honey will not lose its value throughout the following winter, which the northern bee herself endures easily in her hive under a huge layer of snow and almost does not get sick.

Bees in the service of people

A man brought bees as close as possible to his home, because he appreciated them for a long time for such valuable useful honey and wax. Propolis with bee venom, royal jelly and pollen, even the buzzing of bees, have found their use for their particularly beneficial effect on health.

The bees also had to perform a kind of "public work" in the form of pollination of plants sown by man. If it was, for example, buckwheat, sweet clover, sunflower, garden or berry plantations, then they themselves attracted bees to themselves, like other honey plants.

By the way, the answer to the question of what bees eat is very simple. Just these and other similar honey plants.

By the way, the bees are “real”, which means that those of the honeybees that sting are tropical animals. And initially this genus could be found exclusively in the Old World. Among them there are even ferocious, like a large Indian. And especially aggressive - African. They are even called "killer bees". Attacking, they are able to kill people and farm animals. So there will be real bees like this, expect trouble.

About foster families

From time to time in beekeeping it becomes necessary to breed a sufficient number of queens. The best highly productive bee colonies participate in the selection. And there is a selection of families:

• paternal, to bring out the drones;
• maternal, to bring out queens;
• host families that grow uterine larvae.

In order not to breed drones, other colonies are subjected to culling of combs with cells of drones.

In the farm, where there is an apiary of up to one hundred bee colonies, up to 6 colonies are allocated. Breeding too many drones in a single family is considered inappropriate, this will serve to reduce productivity.

Video: Breeding bees for beginners

How to escape from bees flying into your territory?

Even your neighbor's honey bees can cause a lot of trouble. A honey bee usually does not attack a person, but it also has bouts of aggression. Its bites are very painful and sometimes even dangerous if you are allergic to them. And if at least one of these flew in and attacked you on your own site, doubly unpleasant.

Now you have to think about how to get rid of the bees from the neighbor's apiary that have chosen your territory. You really don't want them to evict you.

According to the current rules, so that none of his sponsors fly into the neighbors, a high blank fence must be erected around his possessions. This is so that the honey bee, having risen to such a height, will fly right over your head on its own business and not linger on your site. Even if it seems strange, it works.

Or you can plant lemon balm with lavender around the perimeter at the dacha. Bees do not like this spicy smell, which means they will stay as far away from it as possible.

And there are more radical proposals on how to get rid of bees that have flown in from a neighbor beekeeper.

For example, try to catch them and return them to their owner. For these purposes, traps similar to flashlights have been specially created, so that they will even become decorations on your site. Sweet bait is placed in such a trap. The honey bee will want to eat, but will not be able to get out, this adaptation is so arranged.

And if a whole swarm has come to your site, you won’t be saved by traps and the fight against bees is useless, but paradise turned into a dangerous place. We'll have to contact the person who deals with those bees. Call a neighbor, he will take them to his apiary.

When a whole bee swarm has chosen to live under a roof, you will also need the help of a professional. “Under the roof” means in the attic, or even under the crate under the roof.

Just do not rush to seal the hive with concrete mortar or other materials. Try to resolve this issue with a beekeeper neighbor together.

Now you understand that you should not even think about how to kill the bees, it is better to take care of how to get rid of the bees that for some reason settled on your site and send them back to your hive.

But now you know perfectly well that when you decide to organize an apiary at your dacha, and the allocation of space for it is a settled issue, you must certainly take all measures so that the neighbors do not suffer.

Who benefits from the buzzing of bees?

The benefits that the honey bee and the products of its activity bring have been talked about for a long time and a lot. But few people know that even the buzzing of bees is healing.

So who benefits from listening to the buzzing of bees? What is its healing?

The sound a bee makes is when it flaps its wings. By the way, almost 440 vibrations per second! It is them that our ear perceives as the buzzing of bees. A bee can buzz while sitting and do it quite purposefully. Because the buzzing of bees is also a way for insects to transmit information to each other.

But it is also one of effective methods treatment. Beekeepers confidently declare that the buzzing of bees can cure a wide variety of diseases, even cancer.

For example, do you know that a boarding house has been created in the Crimea, where they treat exclusively with beekeeping products? People come here to experience the technique created by the entrepreneur, the basis for which was bee music, or the buzzing of bees.

Now you know exactly how useful the honey bee is, that everything that comes from it heals and heals, even the buzzing of bees.

Bees will always find their way home. How do they do it?

To this day, disputes do not subside as bees find their way home. There are several explanations for this phenomenon.

The composition of the bee colony is known.

The uterus, which is responsible for reproduction. Both the release of wax and the construction of new combs depend on it.

Drones, a kind of "sperm bank", expelled from the hive to the cold, where they die. Such a male, having fertilized the female, soon dies. By the way, it is very important that the male drone with which the young queen mates comes from a highly productive family.

Worker bees. It is they who have to fly away from the hive over vast distances up to tens of kilometers in search of food, to places where honey plants grow, and wherever they fly, come back with nectar and fly away again. How do bees find their way home several times a day?

The biocommunication system is working. Various signals:

• family smell,
• sun position,
• landscape orientation

At the same time, the path that it flies is stored in memory for up to several days.

Folk wisdom about bees

• Parable (briefly) "Everything is bullshit, except bees"

Around the dying old beekeeper, the assembled fellow villagers lament that they now have no one to turn to for advice. He is the wisest among them.

And only heard from the beekeeper:

All bullshit, except bees.

For fellow villagers, this was not a surprise, because the bees contained his life.

But the dying man continued with his last strength:

And if you think about it, bees are bullshit too.

With this he died.

• Signs

They have existed at all times. Signs and beliefs of beekeepers have been accumulated for centuries. And where there are signs, there are superstitions.

Thus, the role of the environment on the behavior of bees was noted. Some signs associated with bees even predict the weather.

The same signs also say that these insects cannot be sold, only an equivalent exchange is possible.

1. Only a respectful tone is appropriate in the apiary.
2. V Bee hive never hit by lightning.
3. Bees settle under the roof - there will be no suitors.

These signs are only a small part of all existing ones. Centuries-old observations of bees resulted not only in signs, but also in beliefs, superstitions, legends, fairy tales.

Video: 10 amazing facts about bees

Printed publications dedicated to bees

The world of bees is tempting and interesting. It is about beekeeping that numerous printed publications write.

The most famous of them is the Beekeeping magazine, founded in Soviet time. He managed to survive in the 90s, he lives now.

Magazine "Propolis". Obviously, its main task is to acquaint the maximum possible number of people with this industry product.

Especially for beekeepers of Ukraine, the magazine "Pasika" is published. About other sectors of the agricultural sector, including beekeeping, a large Ukrainian magazine "Agrosvit Ukraine".

The Apiary of Russia magazine, the Bees Plus magazine, the Beekeeping Bulletin magazine, the Bee and Man magazine, the Apiary Bee Health magazine - all of them in one way or another serve to popularize knowledge about beekeeping. Here you will find everything about bees.

100 and bees

• To produce 100 g of honey, a bee needs to fly around almost 1,000,000 flowers.
• One cell contains about 100,000 pollen.
• It will take about 100 g of honey to raise a thousand larvae.
• Line 100 is about Carpathian bees.
• Found the remains of a bee, whose age is estimated at 100 million years.

About pupae

This is the last stage of bee development before it becomes an adult.

But before the pupa appears, the "Egg" stage, the "larva" stage, the "prepupa" stage must pass.

Pupae emerge from bee larvae on the 12th day. Until the pupae turn into a real bee, she will shed six times. The larva of the pupa, while spending time in a sealed form, does not eat anything, it only develops. When, finally, on the 21st day, she emerges from the chrysalis, having only managed to gnaw through the lid of the signet, she has already lost half of her weight, and the other bees are diligently feeding her. By the way, by the color of the lid of the pupa, you can understand how soon young bees will appear.

A day later, the young individual leaves the cell, immediately harnessing to work.

There are fundamental differences between a pupa and a larva and from an adult bee.

Pupae differ from larvae in that they are immobile, do not eat, but appearance resemble an adult. But the pupa has features that are absent in an adult, these are spurs in three places on each pair of legs.

Video: General concepts about bees

About bee farms

In a specialized farm, beekeeping is the main industry, for other agricultural organizations it is an additional one.

• apiaries

This small farm provides for the allocation of a small plot of land on which the beehives are placed. Of these, stationary - the season is in one place, and nomadic - move for honey collection to areas with flowering plants.

• bee farms

In one such farm there are several apiaries, families, winter quarters, cell storages and other buildings.

• Inter-farm enterprises for beekeeping

Joint activities of farms for the production of agricultural products on the basis of cooperation. In such an integrated farm, scattered apiaries are transferred to beekeeping units, with greater profitability.

• Beekeeping state farms

The farm simultaneously produces colonies and beekeeping products. Farms are concentrated in Altai, Tatarstan, the North Caucasus and the Far East.

Bees have five eyes. Three small eyes are at the top of the bee's head, and two large eyes are at the front.

The average flight speed of a bee is 24 km per hour.

A bee needs to travel 321,869 km to make 1 kg of honey.

Bee honey has been around for 30 million years.

The bee is the only insect that produces food that humans can eat without further processing.

Honey bees are vital plant pollinators.

The wings of the bee make 11,400 times per minute, which creates their distinctive buzz.

Honey bees are almost the only bees with hairy compound eyes.

A bee pollinates from 50 to 100 flowers in one flight for honey.

Honey bees can perceive movements that take about 1/300th of a second. Humans can only see changes separated by 1/50 of a second. If the bees were watching a movie, they would see every single frame of the movie.

The sting of the bee has a notch that secures the sting in the body of the victim. The bee loses its stinger and venom pouch in the victim's body and soon dies from a ruptured abdomen.

Honey bees communicate with each other by "dancing" as they communicate direction and distance to flowers.

The average bee is actually only able to make 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

Beeswax is produced by eight paired glands on the underside of the abdomen.

Honey bees need to eat about 7-9 kg of honey to produce 450 grams of beeswax.

Honey bees are herbivores, and feed on nectar and pollen from flowers, but they are also able to devour their brood when stressed.

Bees at birth do not know how to make honey; younger bees learn this from more experienced ones.

The queen bee is the only sexual female in the hive. She lives for about 2-3 years and is the only bee that lays eggs. Her busiest time is during the summer months when she lays up to 2500 eggs a day. The queen is capable of laying up to 200,000 eggs per year.

A queen bee can mate with 17 drones for 1-2 days of mating flights. The queen bee stores the sperm from these matings in her spermatheca. The queen bee is able to control the flow of sperm to fertilize her eggs when she is about to lay an egg. Honey bees have an unusual genetic sex determination system. Fertilized eggs will become female offspring while unfertilized eggs will become male. Worker bees emerge from a fertilized egg and have a complete (double) set of chromosomes.

Males, or drones, develop from unfertilized eggs and thus have only one set of chromosomes. They don't do any work, have no stinger, and are only meant for mating. Worker bees are sexually undeveloped females.

Worker bees live for about four weeks in spring or summer, and 6-8 months in winter.

The brain of a worker bee is about 1 cubic millimeter but has the densest neuropil tissue of any other animal.

Only worker bees are able to sting, and only if they feel threatened. The queen also has a sting, but they don't leave the hive.

A healthy person needs to get 500-1100 bee stings for it to be fatal. For a man who has a strong allergic reaction only one bee sting is enough for bee venom.

A bee colony consists of 20,000-60,000 bees and one queen bee.

Each honey bee colony has its own unique scent to identify members.

Bees also drink water, so they lower the temperature of their hive so that it does not overheat in the heat.

Honeycombs are made up of hexagonal cells with walls that can support 25 times their own weight.

In winter, the bees feed on honey, which they collected during the warm season. They form a dense cluster in their hive to keep the queen and themselves warm.

Smaller species of bees often build their homes right in the soil.

Agriculture is largely dependent on the pollination of flowering plants by honey bees. Honey bees carry out up to 80% of all pollinations by all insects. Without such pollination, a significant reduction in the yield of fruits and vegetables will be noticeable.

Bees collect up to 30 kg of pollen per year per hive. Pollen from male germ cells produced by all flowering plants for plant fertilization and embryo formation. Bees use pollen as food. Pollen is one of the richest and purest natural products containing up to 35% protein, 10% sugar, carbohydrates, enzymes, minerals and vitamins (carotene), B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (nicotinic acid), B5 ( panothenic acid), C (ascorbic acid), H (biotin) and R (rutin).

Honey is used by bees for food during all year round. There are many types and flavors of honey, depending on its source of nectar. Bees make honey from the nectar they collect from flowering trees and plants. Honey is easily digestible, pure food. Honey is hygroscopic and has antibacterial properties. Eating local honey can help get rid of allergies.

Secreted from special glands, beeswax is used by bees to build honeycombs. It is also used by humans to make medicines, cosmetics, art supplies, furniture polishes, and candle making.

Propolis (a sticky resin) collected from trees by bees is mixed with wax to make a special glue. Bees use it to seal cracks and repair their hive. People use it in the field of health care, as well as the basis for a thin varnish for wood.

Treatment with bee venom is widely practiced abroad and in our country to solve health problems and treat diseases such as arthritis, neuralgia, high blood pressure, high cholesterol.

Honey bees are not native to the US. They are "European" in origin, and were brought to North America by the first settlers.

Honey bees are not aggressive by nature and will not sting just like that. They do this to protect their hive.

The practice of collecting honey and beekeeping has its roots in the Stone Age, as evidenced by the cave paintings.

Honey is the only food that contains all the substances needed to sustain life, including enzymes, vitamins, minerals and water. It is also a unique food that contains pinocembrin, an antioxidant associated with improved brain function.

Honey bees have 6 legs, 2 compound eyes made up of thousands of tiny lenses (one on each side of the head), 3 simple eyes on the top of the head, 2 pairs of wings, a nectar bag, and a stomach.

Honey bees have 170 odorant receptors, compared to 62 in fruit flies and 79 in mosquitoes. Their exceptional olfactory ability includes receiving signals from the hive, social interactions within the hive, and recognizing scents to find food. Their sense of smell is so precise that she can distinguish hundreds of different flower varieties and determine if a flower contains pollen or nectar from a few meters away.

The brain of a bee is oval and comparable to the size of a single sesame seed, but it has a remarkable ability to learn and remember things, and can also do complex calculations.

The queen bee can live up to 5 years and is the only bee that lays eggs.

Bees from one swarm can "steal" honey from other hives. If they manage to kill the queen, then they lure the rest of the bees into their hive and they meekly fly to a new place of residence.

There is only one that hunts bees for food. This is a common tit. Particularly active eating of bees by these birds is noted in the early spring, when other types of "food" are not yet available.

The Belgian poet and playwright, Nobel Prize winner in 1911 Maurice Maeterlinck called bees "zealous workers who begin their work in the dazzling radiance of the sun and complete it in darkness."

Bees are the first insects from which man began to benefit. Since ancient times, bees have been bred to produce wax, honey, propolis and other bee products.

Bees live in large families. The bee colony consists of worker bees, drones and a queen bee. The uterus (sometimes there may be several) gives life to all generations of the bee colony.

Wild bees build nests in the ground - on steep river banks, in the hollows of old trees, even in empty snail shells.

Bee nests are made up of honeycombs. Worker bees fill the honeycomb with a mixture of pollen and nectar - the food of the future larva. The queen then lays an egg there, and the worker bees seal the cell. Male bees - drones and females - worker bees and queens are hatched from eggs.

Worker bees perform different duties in the nest. They collect nectar and pollen from plants and bring them to the nest; build new combs, take care of the larvae and feed them; protect and clean the nest, feed the uterus with special highly nutritious food - milk. The larvae from which the future queens grow out of them feed on the same milk.

Each bee has a stinger at the back of its body. When a bee pierces the skin with a stinger, it is not so easy to remove it. After a sting, the bee dies: the sting remains inside the victim, and the bee cannot live without it.

The ancient Slavs, in addition to hunting and farming, were engaged in collecting honey and wax from wild bees - beekeeping. The Slavs hollowed out hollows in trees and settled bee colonies in them. Such trees were called boards, and a piece of forest - board lands.

Forest areas have been shrinking. The beekeeping was replaced by deck beekeeping. A hollow was cut in a log-deck, then the log was attached to a tree. Later, the decks began to be placed directly on the ground. The piece of land where the decks stood was called an apiary, and the decks were called beehives. Since then, a new industry has emerged. Agriculture- beekeeping.

MYSTERY

If you drank tea with honey,

You are well acquainted with her.

Collected a lot of honey

Working ... (bee)

FOLK SIGNS

When the bees fly to their hives, it will soon rain.

All about bees - up-to-date information about excellent pollinators and hardworking nectar collectors. These amazing insects easily find their way home, and their family is distinguished by a complex organization and distribution of roles.

General characteristics of bees

About 21 thousand species and 520 genera of insects live in the world. They are distributed on the territories of all continents with the exception of Antarctica. Insects eat nectar and pollen. Nectar mainly acts as a source of energy, while pollen is used as a protein supplement and a storehouse of other nutrients.

Bees have long proboscises used for nectar extraction and antennae: 13-segment in males and 12-segment in females. Among males there are individuals with 11/12-segmented antennae and 12-segmented ones. So, for example, in some representatives of the genus Systropha, the antennae can be either 11 or 12 segmented, and in some male individuals of the subgenera of the cuckoo genus - Pasites (Pasites) and Biastes (Biastes) - only 12- tic-membered. The body length ranges from 0.21 to 3.9 cm.

The largest is Megachile pluto, which lives in Indonesia. She is in the center of the photo.

Description of the worker bee

The worker has a small head, elongated towards the bottom. On the head there is a pair of large (faceted), located on the sides, and a trio of simple eyes in the center a little higher. Compound eyes provide near visibility, and simple eyes provide far vision. Eleven-segmented antennae are located in the middle part of the head, performing the function of organs of touch and charm. At the bottom of the head is a proboscis used to collect nectar and pollen. The upper jaws (mandibles) are small and are used for kneading wax and processing other building materials.

The neck, sinewy and muscular, connects the head to the chest. The legs and wings of an insect are attached to it. Inside the neck are three pairs of spiracles, united in the respiratory system. The breast is divided into three ring-shaped sectors, on which three pairs of legs are located. The limbs are used for better fixation on flowers, for cleaning the body after collecting and transferring pollen, and in a number of construction works.

Between the third and second segments of the legs are wings, which provide an increase in speed and increase the carrying capacity of the insect. The maximum flight speed without wind resistance and load can be 65 km / h. The wings themselves are a collection of small sections of thin chitin.

The abdomen is mobile and contains the most important vital organs of the insect: the heart, dorsal and abdominal diaphragm and tracheal tubes. It connects to the thoracic region with a thin stalk. In adulthood, it is a seven-segment section, the last two pairs of which are intended for wax accumulation. Its weight is 100 g.

The difference between hive and field worker bees

The class of workers is divided into two types:

• beehive
• field.

Subclasses of an individual are distinguished as follows:

The temperature of the nest is a very important parameter that determines the future profession of a worker who is in a chrysalis state. To maintain appropriate temperatures in the hive, there is a subclass of stove bees. The maximum maintained temperature of one insect is 44°C, and the productivity is up to 70 pupae.

Depending on the bee family, "stoves" can be from one to several hundred pieces.

worker bee instincts

The behavior of hive workers is regulated by simple, complex and conditional instincts (reflexes). Simple instincts include:

• airing the hive during hot and dry periods for conditioning and preventing overheating;
• cleaning the home from waste products and bodies of dead family members;
• response to exposure to smoke during processing.

Under the influence of complex reflexes, workers collect honey and accumulate it in large quantities to feed the young, build new combs to store provisions and raise brood, and also protect the nesting site from attacks from other insects and bumblebees.

Conditioned reflexes are used for orientation during flights for nectar and building materials, as well as for communication between family groups, for example, for transmitting data about a large flower meadow.

On the base conditioned reflexes scientific compiler A.F. Gubin wrote a report in which he described the developed method of training to enhance the flight of insects over long distances.

Facts about bees are something every beekeeper, from beginner to professional, needs to know. Check out the most significant of the 100 interesting facts:

1. Insects live for about 50 million years and differ from other species in increased activity and diligence.
2. The smoke used by the beekeepers simulates a fire, as a result, the instinct of self-preservation begins to work in insects, in which insects actively collect nectar in their abdomen to eat on the road. With a full abdomen, the insect is not able to use the sting.
3. To obtain one spoonful (30 g) of honey delicacy, 200 individuals collect nectar, and the same number of individuals accept and process it in the nesting area. The process itself takes a whole day.
4. To fix the cells for storing provisions, they secrete 1 g of wax.
5. When a food source, honey plant or at a short distance is found, the scout or their group returns to the nest and performs a “circular” dance. At a more distant location (from 2 km) of the pollen-bearer, a “waggling dance” is performed.
6. 1 kg of nectar is obtained by collecting nectar from 6-10 million flowers - about 4500 flights per day. The average daily productivity of a strong family is from 5 to 10 kg of sweet treat or 10-20 kg of nectar.
7. Insects have a phenomenal memory, they can fly away from the nest for 8 km and return back without ever going astray. However, they do not fly that far, since such flights are inefficient in terms of collecting provisions, and endanger their lives. Basically, the flight is limited to a 2 km zone from the nest, examining a large area of ​​about 12 hectares.
8. The weight of a bee swarm is from 7 to 8 kg and has about 50-60 thousand individuals, which store 3 kg of nectar in special cells. In case of bad weather, such a supply will last the family for 8 days.
9. One honeycomb is a storage for 18 pieces, the total weight of which is from 140 to 180 mg. The obnozhka consists of 100 thousand dust particles. The daily norm of pollen brought by insects is 400 pieces - an average of up to 30 kg of pollen for the period from May to September.
10. About 25-30% of flying individuals of the family are involved in the process of collecting pollen, bringing 200-350 g of pollen every day, and sometimes up to 2 kg.
11. From most plants, the insect collects nectar, which it feeds on along with pollen, but there are exceptions, for example, hazel, poppy, dog rose and lupine. Pollen is collected from such plants only.
12. Most plants are endowed with nectar, which contains sucrose, glucose and fructose in unequal proportions (depending on the plant). A high concentration of glucose in the nectar contributes to a faster crystallization of the finished product, and vice versa for glucose.
13. If the weight of the hive is 3 kg, then 40-50% of hive insects are involved in the collection of nectar, bringing from 0.4 to 0.5 kg of nectar per flight.
14. A strong family weighing 5 kg uses 60% of the total number of individuals to collect nectar. By limiting the process of laying eggs by the queen during the period of the main flow, the number of insects involved in the assembly work will be increased to 70%.
15. Moving on an uneven surface, the carrying capacity of an insect increases by 320 times.
16. The death of most insects occurs in winter in nesting. Some individuals at the end of summer, anticipating the approaching death, fly away from the nest and die in the wild.
17. Insects in a swarm usually do not use a stinger, so you should not use smoke often when gathering and planting a swarm.
18. The queen bee does not attack people, even if she is physically harmed. However, when meeting with another uterus, without slowing down, he enters the battle using a sting.
19. For feeding 1 thousand larvae, 0.1 kg of nectar, 0.05 kg of pollen and 30 g of water are consumed. The annual consumption of pollen by one family is about 30 kg.
20. Insects have well-developed instincts, so they are subject to the main processes of life.

How to escape from bees flying into your territory?

To escape from insects and protect the site from their encroachment is quite simple, so follow these steps:

1. A blind fence 2-3 m high is installed around the site.
2. Melissa or mint is planted around the perimeter of the plot. Plants have a strong and spicy aroma that is unpleasant to insects.
3. They install special traps made of plastic in bright colors on trees or under the roof of the house.

The given actions are a complex protective measures from insects. Each of them can be performed separately.

There are situations when insects form nests under the roof of houses or in the building itself (inter-wall space). In such cases, they turn to specialists in beekeeping. When a nest is found between the walls, together with an experienced beekeeper, they open the wall and remove the combs with larvae.

Concreting and sealing the nest is strictly prohibited, as such actions will provoke aggression in insects, forcing them to look for new ways to get out.

Sometimes in the neighborhood there may be earth-type insects that live in minks underground. To protect against this type of insect, the following actions are performed:

1. They take 5 liters of boiled water and gradually pour it into the hole.
2. Repeat the same action a few more times.

Water is mainly poured in the evening, when all individuals return from the fields and begin to rest. With daytime processing, there is a risk of being repeatedly stung by fierce defenders of the nest.

Bees will always find their way home. How do they do it?

Insects have an excellent memory and a complex five-segment visual system, thanks to which they see the surrounding space in the form of separate fragments. Such perception helps them remember the landscape while flying for food sources. Location information is stored for 5 days.

Insects have an innate ability to navigate the terrain. It wakes up with the first flight and is corrected with each new flight. They use the following objects as reference points:

• Landscape or natural compass.

Insects from the very beginning remember the landscape surrounding their nesting site. With growing up and gaining experience in flying, the frequency of returning home increases. At the same time, the distance that insects fly away increases, as well as the number of individuals returning to the nest.

Insects remember well the features of the terrain (mountains, reservoirs, fields, etc.) that they flew over in search of nectar or building materials. Objects are memorized by insects and subsequently identified by the visual organ.

• The sun.

It is the main landmark of insects. Orientation of insects is also carried out based on the position of the sun and the polarization of light. The adaptive process on the ground is highly accurate, because thanks to a unique visual system, they can see not only in daylight, but also in the dark.

Insects fly at a certain angle relative to the sun, and their eyes control the amount of light that falls on the lens. Regardless of the difference between the starting and ending points of the route, the eyes of insects accurately determine the position of the sun and fix the objects illuminated by it. The combination of adaptive ability and excellent memory contributes to an efficient and easy return to the nesting site.

How do insects find their way home in bad weather? The answer is simple: if the sun is absent on the horizon, and it is cloudy in the yard, then the insect is guided by fluctuations in the plane of light polarization.

• Smell.

Communication between individuals is carried out using a complex system based on biological characteristics, a specific way of transmitting information, as well as the individual features of objects: smells, shapes and colors. Basically, when collecting nectar, insects are guided by the smell emanating from the scouts, and they get to the honey plant using it.

The organs of smell in insects are located on the antennae and have a small pitted structure, which is covered with porous plates. They connect with sensitive nerve cells that perceive odors and transmit a signal to the brain. Insects perceive the smells of objects by the so-called contact method, that is, they feel them with their antennae.

Bees are able to identify members of their family by the specific smell secreted by the nasonic glands, which are located between the 5th and 6th segment of the lower abdomen. Each family has its own unique and individual scent.

Transfer of information

Insects have a very unusual, but at the same time very curious way of transmission, depicted as rhythmic movements that resemble a dance. It is typical for scouts or their groups. After finding a flowering field, the scout returns to the nest and starts dancing, agitating the rest of the insects to fly to the source. The dance begins with a wagging of the lower part of the abdomen from side to side, which is accompanied by an increase in the activity of movements, depending on the proximity of the honey plant. During the dance, the scout steps several times in a certain direction in a straight line, and then turns sharply to the side and begins to repeat the dance for 20 times.

The higher the activity of belly wagging, the closer the honey collection is from the nest. The wobbling direction indicates the location of the source.

When the darkness reigns in the nest, a contact identification method is used. At the moment of the scout's dance, the insects that are in the hive touch the dancer's antennae and receive information about the movements, and then repeat them. After several repetitions, the workers go to the place where the nectar is collected. The distance to the place is determined by the rhythm of the dance and the timing of the figures. The beginning and end of the figure of the dancer is registered by the buzzing of the wings.

Basically, the location of the honey collection area is indicated by the sun. When the site is in the direction of the sun, the dance movements will follow the trajectory from top to bottom, but if it is in the direction from the sun, then the movements will be performed in the reverse order. With other directions, the dancer will turn in the corresponding direction.

Video: 10 amazing facts about bees

Classification

The modern classification is a multi-family structure consisting of many genera and species. In it, sphecoid wasps, which have some similarity with them, are combined into one group with bees.

Photo gallery of bees

Carpenters are large black insects with a small fur layer covering the entire body, some individuals may have a blue metallic tint on the head and chest. The body length is from 2 to 3 cm and depends on the subspecies of the insect. They are considered solitary insects and are distinguished from others by their bright blue wings.

Organization of bees

Representatives of the bee section are highly organized insects. So, for example, insects belonging to the social class fly together in search of forage meadows, building materials and other necessary things. The erection of a dwelling and its protection from common enemies are also of a group nature. Honeycombs are erected in the nest, care for the young and the uterus is carried out.

Social and semi-social bees

Insects are able to live alone, regardless of other individuals, but they can also unite in social formations - colonies. Colonies are mainly formed by melliferous and stingless individuals, as well as by most bumblebees. The social nature of insects has undergone multiple evolution, and in the absence of dependence on each other among different groups.

In some species, females belonging to the same group are sisters to each other. In many colonies there is a system with a clear distribution of labor, then they are called semi-public. In social families, in addition to the division of labor, there is a social hierarchical system, where the highest link is the uterus - the queen, the middle - males and females, and the lowest - working insects that get food. If there is a division solely within the framework of behavior, the structure is called a primitive social group. With morphological differences in caste layers (family links), the group is highly social.

There are quite a lot of insects with a primitive social system, but so far there is little information about them. They mainly belong to the halictid family.

Families of insects are small. The workers are few in number, and their largest group consists of 12 individuals. The uterus and workers differ only in their dimensions. During wintering, only fertilized females survive. The life cycle of a colony in these insects is 1 year, however, in some it is several years (the number of individuals is much higher). Some representatives of the genus Euglossins (Euglossin) have a similar biology.

Specific interaction of older individuals with young animals is observed in certain varieties of insects belonging to the tribe Allodapini (Allodapini). To a greater extent, it concerns the way of feeding the younger generation. In families, nectar is dosed as the larvae develop. A similar organization of nutrition is characteristic of honey insects and some bumblebees.

solitary bees

Other insects:

• alfalfa leaf-cutting bee (Megachile rotundata);

• Osmia lignaria;

Solitary insects are excellent pollinators. In the process of departures, they collect pollen and nectar, and in the nesting place they mix them and feed them with the resulting mass of larvae. Most insects are wild, and only a few varieties are grown for further use in the pollination of agricultural products. They are very selective in their food and tend to collect nectar and pollen from a limited list of plants.

Sometimes certain insects are interconnected with specific plants, that is, one species pollinates one plant. Accordingly, the death of individuals of this species endangers the life of the plant.

Nests of solitary insects are found in underground rodent burrows, sometimes in tree hollows or blackberry bushes. During laying, the queen builds an individual cell (comb) for each egg, places it there, pours a little mixture of nectar and pollen, and then seals it. The number of cells in the nest is different, there may be either 1 or 30 cells. When organizing a nest in a hollow, there are honeycombs with eggs of males near the exit. After laying, the uterus ceases to take care of the offspring. As a rule, queens die after creating several nests.

Some insects have a primitive social structure. Their queens build nests near the nests of families that belong to the same species. Separate varieties of single insects live according to the so-called "communal" principle, that is, different queens lay their eggs in the same nest and jointly care for the young, each of them replenishes the individual feeding cells belonging to its family. The main advantage of such an organization is the alternate protection of nesting sites. Carpenters live according to a similar principle, only the queens of the genus immediately after laying go to the entrance to the nest and stand on its defense until the first adults hatch.

Organization of the honey bee family

In the families of honey insects there is a pronounced social system and a clear system of division of labor. A conditional factor that determines the functions of a particular individual is its biological age (up to 9 months) before the end of wintering.

Workers also have another age - life expectancy at the time of the bribe, which is 30-35 days. It is he who is used to indicate the stages of life and development of insects.

The first to hatch are the workers, who immediately after birth begin to feed the queen with larvae with royal jelly. At the age of 7 to 10 days, their wax gland becomes active and wax begins to be released. During this period, individual individuals retrain and begin to equip or supplement the nest. With the beginning of spring, there is an active construction of honeycombs white color. By the 15th day of life, the productivity of the wax glands decreases, and the transition of insects to caring for the nest, that is, work is done to clean the combs and clean the nest. On the 20th day, some insects begin to ventilate the nest to maintain the optimum temperature. From the 22nd to the 25th day of life, an active collection of nectar and pollen takes place. After 30 days, the insects collect water.

There are situations when cuckoos remain in the nest, but only if it belongs to owners of a social type. In such cases, eggs are not thrown, but laid, the former queen is replaced or killed.

honey bees

The bee family is a kind of biological unit. Each of them has individual qualities and inherent hereditary features.

Honey insects live in large families consisting of a uterus, an army of thousands of workers, and closer to summer - male and female individuals that participate in the reproduction process. None of the castes can function separately from each other, since there is a close relationship between them. The only survivors after wintering are fertilized females, which create new families.

The main species of honey insects are:

• Central Russian;
• Caucasian;
• Carpathian;
• Krajina;
• Ukrainian.

Large insects with a dark green color and no yellowness and a long proboscis from 0.059 to 0.064 cm. They are very hardy and hardworking, with high efficiency. They differ from others in the duration of wintering and low food consumption (1.0-1.2 kg per street) during the period. Easily adapt to different temperatures and can collect nectar in the range from +12 to +37°C. They are quite aggressive and, if neglected, can sting.

caucasian breed

Miniature, with a long proboscis up to 0.075 cm. The average productivity of the uterus is 2 thousand eggs per day. They have good cold resistance, so they collect nectar until the beginning of September. They are slightly aggressive and do not attack even when examining the hive.

Carpathian breed

Krajina breed

Insects with a gray color that shimmers in silver. The abdominal segments are black with a grayish ring around each of them and a small white down. Closer to the Danube, the color takes on notes of brown, and near the Adriatic they have yellow stripes. They are of medium size and stand between the Central Russian and Caucasian breeds. The uterus is large and prolific - 200 thousand eggs per day. Insects are actively developing in early spring. Distribute food for its economical use during wintering. They are distinguished by high honey productivity and are able to collect nectar at an altitude of up to 1.5 km.

Ukrainian breed

The color of the insects is gray, like the Central Russian breed, but it is slightly lighter and more yellow. The wingspan is slightly larger, and the legs are longer. The proboscis is relatively long, from 0.0634 to 0.0663 cm. This length allows you to collect nectar from clover flowers, which are most preferred.

The uterus of the Ukrainian breed is distinguished by a red color with pronounced black stripes along the abdomen. She is very hardworking and lays from 1.95 to 2.3 thousand eggs per day. Character changeable from peace-loving to spiteful. They become more aggressive as the weather worsens.

bee food

The main food of insects is nectar. A more active collection trend can be seen when the sugar content of the nectar is 50%. A higher concentration of the substance makes the process more difficult. After the nectar is collected, insects add salivary secretions to it, thereby removing excess water, and then transform it into one of the components of everyone's favorite treat.

On average, the water in nests with normal ventilation evaporates for about 5 days, however, with a decrease in the ventilation of the room, there is a delay in the removal of liquid, which can be up to 20 days. To remove 450 g of water, insects use 100 g of sugar. After processing the nectar and adding honeydew to it, a honey delicacy is obtained - a mixture of fruit and grape sugars, consisting of: water from 21 to 47%, organic acids, nitrogenous and mineral substances, vitamins.

In addition to nectar, insects eat flower pollen, which is used as a protein and vitamin supplement for feeding young animals. In the process of collecting pollen, they mix it with saliva and nectar, making small lumps - pollen. The pollen is carried in pollen baskets located on the hind legs.

From raw pollen, insects make bee pollen, which they put in separate cells and preserve with saliva and nectar. Preservation ensures the process of lactic acid fermentation, which preserves the beneficial properties of bee bread and prevents it from spoiling.

What colors do bees prefer?

The most attractive to insects are purple and blue-green flowers.. This was proven during the experiment. Scientists built a structure in which they placed flowers with different colors and insects. The latter immediately went to the purple and yellow flowers.

Surprisingly, they are able to determine the type of pollen that suits them from a distance, so among beekeepers, the amount of nectar and pollen is considered the main criterion for choosing one or another flower in insects.

One more interesting feature revealed Professor Lars Chitka together with his colleagues. She conducted an experiment in which purple and pink flowers were installed. Moreover, purple were warmer than pink flowers. It turned out that 58% of insects gave their preference to the first flowers. To confirm the theory, scientists conducted a reverse experiment, where pink flowers were warmer than purple. Here the result was more interesting: the percentage of insects that choose honey plants increased and began to account for 61.6% of the total, and flowers with a higher temperature were preferred. The professor connects the peculiarity of choosing a food source with the natural need to regulate body temperature, which is necessary for survival within a certain climatic zone.

The temperature of the nectar is a source of additional energy, which contributes to an increase in the speed of this process, and the color of the flower is an identifier that insects remember and subsequently determine the warmer ones.

bee enemies

Insects have a fairly large number of enemies and therefore are very vulnerable to them. They differ both in their species and in the nature of the damage caused to the family. Enemies of adults are the following categories:

In its appearance, it is similar to the common wasp, but only with a larger head and a bright yellow belly. The habitat of the bee wolf is the central part of Russia and the southern stripes of the country. Burrows are tubular up to 1 m long. Queens usually build nests on cliffs or slopes to provide protection and inaccessibility to housing. The habitats of the philanthus can be identified by slopes riddled with round holes, which are the norms of the insect. They eat nectar extracted from flowers and honey delicacy from bee stomachs. When attacked, the bee wolf attacks the worker, killing him with a sting, and then turns him over on his back and presses on his abdomen, thereby causing the honeydew to drain from the goiter into the proboscis, which is then eaten by the philanthus.

If the purpose of the attack of the bee wolf was honeydew, then after eating it, he leaves the corpse of the insect at the site of the attack. When he needs food for young animals, the philant takes his prey to the nesting place, where he carefully places it in the center of the dwelling, and then lays eggs on the chest of the corpse. The larva that was born is very hungry, so it immediately starts eating the insect on which it was born.

• European bee-eater

A small and beautiful bird with a greenish-blue color, a golden-yellow throat, a brown-brown back and a bluish-green tail. The body length is 0.26 m. The nesting sites are located on steep slopes. The nest itself is a hole dug in the ground, the length of which can reach up to 2 meters. In the underground part of the dwelling there is a large space where birds live. The laying season runs from early May to early June. During the period, the female lays up to 8 eggs. Departure of chicks begins in June and ends in July.

Bee-eaters cause enormous damage to apiaries, as they do not fly alone. An attack on insect nests occurs in flight, after which they grab insects and fly away. On average, one bird is able to catch up to several dozen insects.

• bee-eater

Another bird of prey. They are distinguished by a dark brown back, a white abdomen interspersed with dark brown spots. They are large, their body length is 0.65 m. Bee-eaters are distributed throughout Russia. They nest during May. The average clutch per season consists of 3-4 eggs, on which dark brown spots are located. The diet of bee-eaters consists of all insects of the stalked-bellied order.

Large wasp-like carnivores with a yellow head and anterior thoracic region. The first segment of the abdomen is dark brown, edged with a narrow yellow stripe, the remaining segments are yellow with black spots interspersed. They live in large families consisting of workers and a queen. Toward the end of the summer period, the queen lays eggs with males and fertile females that will hatch by autumn. Spring is the time of nest building, erected under the roofs of residential buildings or in tree hollows. Hornet larvae eat animal food.

Video: general concepts about bees

The evolution of bees

Insects, like ants, evolved from wasps. Their distant ancestor was a family of sand wasps, which were predators. Wasps mainly ate workers who collected pollen. This preference presumably gave impetus to the transition from eating insects to feeding on nectar and pollen. The evolution of the superfamily Vespoidea proceeded according to a similar scenario.

In 2006, the first representative of the oldest species of insects was discovered in Burma, sealed in Hukawng Valley amber. It was named Melittosphex burmensis. It is a transitional link from the predatory lifestyle of wasps to the first pollinators. The hind legs of the discovered individual are characteristic of predators, but the thick hairs covering the body are more suitable for pollinating insects.

Diseases of bees

The classification of diseases is very extensive, however, all the diseases included in it are divided into two large groups:

• contagious;
• non-contagious.

The main diseases that insects most often suffer from are:

• Varratosis

Infected individuals develop a weakness that, if not promptly responded to, will lead to their death. The main sources of the disease are: insects that got into the nest when they were transplanted into a weaker family, and larvae affected by ticks.

Intestinal disorder of insects, which is caused by the simplest biological organisms. Its characteristic features are: liquid waste products that are found throughout the nest, and abundant death of insects. In some cases, the uterus dies with nosematosis.

Infected insects have a noticeably enlarged abdomen compared to other individuals. In general, nosematosis occurs due to poor and insufficient care of insects, the presence of impurities that should not be in the feed, insufficient preparation of hives for winter and a small number of young insects.

• Ascospherosis

A fungal pathogenic disease that can develop after insect infestation by the varroa mite. The greatest likelihood of infection with ascospherosis appears during bad weather with high humidity air, as the conditions are most favorable for the reproduction of pathogens.

• Filamentovirosis

A disease that occurs as a result of exposure to a virus that infects DNA. It is typical for individuals of the older generation. The disease develops gradually and may not be detected at the primary stage. From the third to the fourth day, the insects weaken and move sluggishly around the hive, and the next day the hemolymph becomes cloudy and becomes milky white. Insects die, as a rule, on the 8-12th day. The uterus is more hardy and lays eggs for about 6 more days, and dies on about 17-18 days. A distinctive feature of the disease is a large death near the entrance of the family during the winter.

Insect infection can occur during feeding if the food contained particles of viral organisms or the pores of a nosema (fungus) got into it. Half of the family falls under the influence of the disease. The virus spreads through the midgut nervous system, and also affects the areas of the poisonous and wax glands.

Extinction of bees

The beginning of the 90s was not very good for the world union of beekeepers, since then the first mass disappearances of honey insects were recorded, mainly during winter period. Unfortunately, from that time to the present, about 4 thousand species of insects have died. In 2006, in the United States, a similar phenomenon was given a scientific name and it became known as the syndrome of the destruction of bee colonies.

Until now, scientists have not been able to fully identify the causes of this syndrome. Presumably, such a phenomenon can be caused by biotic factors or human economic activity, and possibly both at the same time.

Since ancient times, insects have been shrouded in myths and legends. According to the ancient Egyptians, the human soul after death transformed into a golden insect and left our world. Hittite mythology tells of an insect that found the god Tepin and woke him up, returning prosperity to the earth. The Greeks were convinced that the god Zeus was nourished by the nectar of Melissa. The legends of the ancient Greeks mention Aristaeus, the son of the god Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, who, according to the scriptures, taught people the art of beekeeping. However, the reality was quite different.

In fact, the inhabitants of ancient Palestine were actively engaged in a kind of breeding of honey insects. At that time, swarms of insects nested on rocks, from which, in hot weather, melted nectar flowed down, picked up by people.

The value of nesting insects was recognized already in the Stone Age, so the pithecanthropes diligently collected them for the extraction of wax and tasty treats, despite all the danger and difficulty. The collection of honeydew by human ancestors is confirmed by cave paintings, such as those found in the Spider Cave.

Scientists find it difficult to answer when the transition from collecting to breeding insects in the classical sense took place, but on the basis of archaeological data, we can talk about the first breeding attempts dated back to a period of 6 thousand years ago, which were undertaken by the Egyptians.

The uterus in the family is the only full-fledged female with well-developed genitals. The whole composition of the family comes from it: worker bees, drones and young queens. The queen is constantly surrounded by worker bees who take care of her: they give food, clean her body, clean the cells of the honeycombs for laying eggs in them, etc. The presence of the queen bees in the family is recognized by her smell. The uterus secretes a special substance, the so-called "uterine substance", which is licked by worker bees from the "retinue" surrounding it. The smell of this substance is transmitted to all individuals of the bee family due to the constant exchange of food between them. When the uterus dies, the supply of "uterine substance" stops, and the whole family quickly feels its absence.
When queens are inseminated, the sperm of drones, containing a huge amount of spermatozoa, enters the spermatheca of the uterus, where it is stored throughout its life. The eggs laid by the uterus pass from the ovaries first through the paired oviducts, and then through the unpaired one. If, at the same time, spermatozoa (8-12 pieces each) penetrate into the mature eggs from the seminal receptacle, then the eggs will be fertilized. If the sperm of the drones does not fall on them, the eggs will remain unfertilized. Therefore, the uterus lays both fertilized and unfertilized eggs. From unfertilized eggs, only male drones develop. The latter, therefore, do not have a father and inherit only the property of the mother. The fertilized eggs develop into queen bees and worker bees.
Bees grow queens in large honeycomb cells specially built for this purpose - queen cells. Bees can rebuild them on ordinary bee cells of the honeycomb, in which the queen has already laid fertilized eggs. Such queen cells are rebuilt by bees after the sudden death of the old queen in order to bring out a new one to replace it.
With the sudden death of the queens and the absence of larvae in the nest, the food intended for them is consumed by the nurse bees themselves, which causes them to develop ovaries (each of 3-5, less often of 10-20 egg tubes). However, worker bees cannot mate with drones. They also do not have a sperm receptacle to store sperm. Therefore, from the unfertilized eggs laid by such bees, only drones develop. Worker bees with functioning ovaries are called tinder bees. A family with tinder bees is doomed to gradual extinction if the beekeeper does not provide it with the necessary assistance in time.
The worker bees do all the work inside and outside the hive. They clean the nest, prepare the cells of the combs for laying eggs in them by the uterus, secrete wax and build new combs, feed the larvae, maintain the required temperature in the hive, protect the nest, collect nectar and pollen from plant flowers and bring them to the hive; in a word, worker bees perform all the work associated with the life of a bee colony.
The “stove bees” are responsible for the production of heat, which regulate the production of heat with great precision and are able to heat up to 44 ° C. One such bee, climbing into a free cell, is able to provide heat for up to 70 pupae, and in total, depending on the size of the colony, the number of such bees can range from several to several hundred. The temperature at which the pupa developed affects the future "profession": the pupa that developed at 35 ° C will become a forager, and at 34 ° C - a housewife. In addition, the specialization of the bee depends on the innate response to stimuli: individuals that respond to positive stimuli (food) become foragers, and negative ones (danger) become guards. .To raise a thousand larvae requires 100 g of honey, 50 g of pollen and 30 g of water. The annual need for pollen is up to 30 kg per bee colony.