InsideTheHive

Workers

Queens

Honey

Beeswax

Drones

Communication

Defense

Hello there! I will be your guide for the rest of the

presentation. Just click on any of the topics below to learn more about them!

Hello there! I will be your guide for the rest of the

presentation. Just click on any of the topics below to learn more about them!

Tools for Teachers

When looking for a place to construct a new nest, honeybees typically are looking for an area that:

Is large enough

Has a small entrance

Faces south to maintain warmth

and Is located high above the ground

Once they have found a good place, the bees scrape off any loose wood or other debris and coat the interior surface with propolis, or dried tree resin. They then starting generating beeswax to build the combs.

This Section describes the

process of building a hive. When you’re

finished with this slide, click the

arrow to move on.

This Section describes the

process of building a hive. When you’re

finished with this slide, click the

arrow to move on.

Middle-aged worker bees are responsible for constructing the combs which they do using wax secreted from their abdomens. Combs are built downward from the top of the hive.

Each comb consists of horizontal, hexagon shaped cells which are connected to the roof and walls.

The cells serve a variety of purposes in the hive:

1. The cells on top are used for storing honey

2. The next level is made up of pollen-storage cells

3. And then cells for Worker and Drone larvae

4. At the bottom, are the cells that will hold the Queen larvaeCheck Your Understanding:

• What kind of location do honeybees want to build a hive in?

• How are combs constructed and what purpose do they serve in the hive?

Check Your Understanding:• What kind of location do honeybees

want to build a hive in? • How are combs constructed and what

purpose do they serve in the hive?

The Queen Bee is the largest honeybee in the colony. At a given time, there should be only one Queen living within the colony and it is her responsibility to lay all of the eggs.

A Queen will typically live about three years. When the current Queen becomes weaker and slow in laying her eggs, the Workers will begin to raise new Queen larvae.

When the new Queens are born, it is a signal for the old Queen to leave the nest or die.

If more than one Queen emerges, all but one of these bees will be kicked out of the nest, or will battle each other until there is only one Queen remaining.

The Queen is one of the most important bees in the colony! In

the next slides, I will provide you with everything you need to

know about her.

The Queen is one of the most important bees in the colony! In

the next slides, I will provide you with everything you need to

know about her.

Once she becomes Queen, a honeybee will use her workers to distribute a pheromone, or chemical message, in order to alert the rest of colony that she is alive and to stop the Workers from reproducing.

As soon as she becomes an adult, the Queen will take her ‘mating flights’. This is when the Queen mates with ten or more male bees in order to store the sperm she will need to lay eggs for the rest of her life.

In one day a queen can lay her weight in eggs. She will lay one egg per minute, day and night, for a total of 1,500 eggs a day.

The Queen also has the job of deciding which eggs to fertilize and which to

leave unfertilized. Fertilized eggs will develop into the Female Workers and those left unfertilized will become the Male Drones.When you are finished, check your understanding:

• What characteristics about the Queen are special?

• What purpose does the Queen serve in the colony?

When you are finished, check your understanding:

• What characteristics about the Queen are special?

• What purpose does the Queen serve in the colony?

Workers are females.

About 85% of a the bees in a nest are Workers.

Workers go through 3 stages that determine their role in the colony:

Stage One

Stage Two

Stage Three

Click on the buttons to learn about the different stages in

a Worker’s life.

Then, check your understanding:

What roles do Workers carryout in each stage?

Click on the buttons to learn about the different stages in

a Worker’s life.

Then, check your understanding:

What roles do Workers carryout in each stage?

Workers are responsible for

Cleaning the cells

Nursing the offspring

and Tending to the Queen

1-12 days old

Eggs and larvae

12-20 days old

They develop new responsibilities such as

Building the comb

Storing pollen and nectar

and Ventilating the nest

Frame removed from bee keeping hive

20-30 days oldBees typically do not live much more than 30 days. From the time they reach 20 days until death, they must

Become “foragers” and collect the nectar

and Provide enzymes for making honey

In a just one trip, a forager will visit between 50 and 100 flowers and returns to the hive carrying over half her weight in pollen and nectar.

Foragers returning back to the hive loaded with pollen

Drones are males

Their only role in the colony is to try and mate with the Queen

There are advantages and disadvantages for Drones

Advantages

Disadvantages

Click on the buttons to learn about the advantages and disadvantages of being a

Drone.

Then, check your understanding:

What is good/bad about being a Drone?

Click on the buttons to learn about the advantages and disadvantages of being a

Drone.

Then, check your understanding:

What is good/bad about being a Drone?

Drones receive better treatment than Workers during birth. As the females have to get themselves out of their cells, males are helped out by the nurses.

The male Drones also have no work to do around the nest.

Birth of bee

If resources or food become scarce (often during the winter), Workers kick Drones out of the nest where they cannot survive on their own.

The Drones die after mating with the Queen.

Worker bees (left) emerging from hive push away drones (right)

Bees do not create honey; they are actually improving upon a plant product, nectar.

The worker bees collect the nectar that will become honey. First, they go out, collect the sugar-rich flower nectar and return to the hive.

Once they get the nectar back to the hive, the bees use their "honey stomachs" to ingest and regurgitate the nectar a number of times until it is partially digested. It is then stored in the honeycomb.

The honeycomb is then left unsealed. Bees will fan their wings, creating a strong draft across the honeycomb to evaporate excess the water from the nectar.

Before moving on, check your

understanding:What plant product

does honey come from? What do the bees do to

process the honey?

Before moving on, check your

understanding:What plant product

does honey come from? What do the bees do to

process the honey?

When they reach a particular age, worker bees will secrete beeswax from glands in their abdomens.

Honeybees use this wax to build the walls and caps of the comb.

Humans also use beeswax as a way of making wax products, such as candles.

Besides humans, highly social bees such as honeybees are the only animals that use complex symbolic communication.

Honey bees are able to accurately describe the location, quality, and quantity of a food source to other bees in the hive.

This communication is done through dances and sounds.

These dances are performed on a “dance floor” located near the entrance to the hive.

The next slides will outline the various

dances that honeybees use to communicate with

each other.

The next slides will outline the various

dances that honeybees use to communicate with

each other.

To communicate to others in the hive where to find a nectar source that is located within 35 yards or less of the hive, honeybees will perform the “round” dance.

The bee turns in circles to the left and then to the right.

How long and enthusiastic her dance is, represents how plentiful the nectar source is.

The dance does not tell the other bees what direction the flower is in, however she will provide them with the flower’s scent so they will be able to locate it.

Honeybees have developed a dance known as the “waggle” dance to communicate where to find a nectar source that is not within 35 yards of the the hive.

The amount of time she dances, represents how far away the nectar source is.

The more enthusiastic the dance is, the more abundant the source.

The angle of her dance tells the workers what angle from the sun the nectar source is.

She lets the other workers touch and smell her so that they know the scent of the flower.

Click the black box above to see a demonstration of the

“waggle” dance.

Click the black box above to see a demonstration of the

“waggle” dance.

Honeybees also use a “shake” dance in order to tell other bees

when a nectar source is too large and there is need for more

foragers.

The “tremble” dance is used to inform other bees that too much nectar has been brought back to the hive and more bees are

needed to process it into honey,

Honeybees do not rely on only their stingers for defense.

They have different responses to both external and internal threats to their safety.

External Threats Internal Threats

Guard bee attacking an invading wasp

Click the buttons to find out how honeybees defend

themselves.

Then, check your understanding:

In what ways to honeybees protect against external and

internal threats?

Click the buttons to find out how honeybees defend

themselves.

Then, check your understanding:

In what ways to honeybees protect against external and

internal threats?

Guard bees patrolling the entrance to the hive

To protect against external threats, the bees rely first on their protective nest.

There is only one entrance to the hive, which is constantly patrolled by Guard bees.

When necessary, the Guards will release an alarm pheromone to alert other Guards of the threat and enable the bees to join in a massive counterattack.

Once inside the hive, honeybees have a number of defenses as well.

Each colony has a specific odor which allows them to tell the difference between members of their colony and intruders that may have gotten into the hive.

To protect against illness, there are bees called “undertaker” bees that will remove the remains of their dead colony members.

There are properties in the honey that bees produce that protect it from spoilage. This is important because bees rely so much on honey for energy.

Bees using their body heat to kill 2 intruding hornets

Take Home Word Search Assignment

Assessment: Quiz on Honeybee Lesson

Lesson Plan Outline

Click on the link below to access and print the assignment.

Word Search Assignment

To access and print the quiz for this lesson, click on the link below.

Honeybee Assessment

Answer Key