Welcome to the Beeyard
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Bees really are the bees knees....
(Though fun fact, bees have jointed legs, they do not possess anything like a kneecap, and therefore do not have knees.)
Bees are widespread, varied, and, most importantly, critical to our ecosystem.
Historically
Bees have been kept for over 4500 years, as cave paintings show.
In ancient Egypt, honey was used as a sweetener for royalty. Honey was revered in ancient Egypt, and until recently the oldest honey in the world was indeed found in an Egyptian tomb. That 3,000 years old honey had been placed in honey pots in the tomb of deceased pharoah King Tut to keep him happy on his celestial journey to the afterlife. It was that old.... and it was still edible.
Honey contains healing resorts and has been used for centuries for healing sickness
In Our Story
What!?
-Each bee has 170 odorant receptors, this sense of smell is 50 times more powerful than a dog. They HATE the smell of human breath.
-Bees are currently being used to study dementia. When a bee takes on a new job usually done by a younger bee, its brain stops aging!
The Colony
A honey bee colony typically consists of three kinds of adult bees: workers, drones, and a queen. Each member has a definite task to perform, related to its adult age. But surviving and reproducing take the combined efforts of the entire colony. Individual bees (workers, drones, and queens) cannot survive without the support of the colony.
Honey bees are social insects, which means that they live together in large, well-organized family groups. Social insects are highly evolved insects that engage in a variety of complex tasks not practiced by the multitude of solitary insects.
Communication, complex nest construction, environmental control, defense, and division of the labor are just some of the behaviors that honey bees have developed to exist successfully in social colonies. These fascinating behaviors make social insects in general, and honey bees in particular, among the most fascinating creatures on earth.
Labor activities among worker bees depend primarily on the age of the bee but vary with the needs of the colony. Reproduction and colony strength depend on the queen, the quantity of food stores, and the size of the worker force. As the size of the colony increases up to a maximum of about 60,000 workers, so does the efficiency of the colony.
In addition to thousands of worker adults, a colony normally has a single queen and several hundred drones during late spring and summer. The social structure of the colony is maintained by the presence of the queen and workers and depends on an effective system of communication. The distribution of chemical pheromones among members and communicative “dances” are responsible for controlling the activities necessary for colony survival.
The activities of a colony vary with the seasons. The period from September to December might be considered the beginning of a new year for a colony of honey bees. The condition of the colony at this time of year greatly affects its prosperity for the next year.
Members
Worker bees:
-Several thousand worker bees cooperate in the hive. Workers have specialized structures, such as brood food glands, scent glands, wax glands, and pollen baskets, which allow them to perform all the labors of the hive.
-They clean and polish the cells, feed the brood, care for the queen, remove debris, handle incoming nectar, build beeswax combs, guard the entrance, and air-condition and ventilate the hive during their initial few weeks as adults.
-Later as field bees they forage for nectar, pollen, water, and propolis (plant sap). A worker bee can carry a load of nectar or pollen equal to 80% of her own body weight.
-The life span of the worker during summer is about 6 weeks. Workers reared in the fall may live as long as 6 months, allowing the colony to survive the winter and assisting in the rearing of new generations in the spring before they die.
-The worker bees are always female are the only bees to have stingers.
-These female bees have a sting at the end of their abdomen and will use it to defend themselves and their nest. The worker honeybees, which are female, die when they sting mammals. This is because their sting is barbed, like a fishing hook, that gets lodged in the skin of the assailant and rips the bee’s body apart as they pull apart.
-Their sting produces a smell, known as an alarm pheromone, which alerts other honeybees from the colony to attack the assailant. Imagine that a large bear is stealing honey from the bees’ nest. If the bear receives multiple stings it is more likely to retreat. A few honeybees may die in the process of defending the nest, but the colony is saved.
Drones:
-Drones are always male.
-Male bees do not sting. This is because instead of a stinger, a male bee has an endophallus. (This is a reproductive organ)
-Drones are the largest bees in the colony. The drone’s head is much larger than that of either the queen or worker, and its compound eyes meet at the top of its head.
-They are generally present only during late spring and summer. Drones have no stinger, pollen baskets, or wax glands. Their main function is to fertilize the queen during her mating flight.
Queen:
-Each colony has only one queen. The Queen is the center and the most important member of the hive.
-Only the Queen can reproduce. Her primary function is reproduction. She produces both fertilized and unfertilized eggs. Queens lay the greatest number of eggs in the spring and early summer.
-During peak production, queens may lay up to 1,500 eggs per day. They gradually cease laying eggs in early October and produce few or no eggs until early next spring (January).
-One queen may produce up to 250,000 eggs per year and possibly more than a million in her lifetime.
Oh Baby...
Bees are supreme pollinators because of what their babies eat. Most animals visit flowers to pilfer nectar, and they may or may not brush up against pollen and carry it to the next flower. Female bees, conversely, deliberately collect pollen, along with nectar, to feed their babes. This larval food choice is part of what defines a bee.
Brood:
All three types of adult honey bees pass through three developmental stages before emerging as adults: egg, larva, and pupa. The three stages are collectively labeled brood. While the developmental stages are similar, they do differ in duration . Unfertilized eggs become drones, while fertilized eggs become either workers or queens. Nutrition plays an important part in caste development of female bees; larvae destined to become workers receive less royal jelly and more a mixture of honey and pollen compared to the copious amounts of royal jelly that the queen larva receives.
Eggs:
Honey bee eggs are normally laid one per cell by the queen. Each egg is attached to the cell bottom and looks like a tiny grain of rice. When first laid, the egg stands straight up on end (Figure 4). However, during the 3-day development period the egg begins to bend over. On the third day, the egg hatches into a tiny grub and the larval stage begins.
Larvae:
Healthy larvae are pearly white in color with a glistening appearance. They are curled in a “C” shape on the bottom of the cell. Worker, queen, and drone cells are capped after larvae are approximately 5 ½, 6, and 6 ½ days old, respectively. During the larval stage, they are fed by adult worker (nurse) bees while still inside their beeswax cells. The period just after the cell is capped is called the prepupal stage. During this stage the larva is still grub-like in appearance but stretches itself out lengthwise in the cell and spins a thin silken cocoon. Larvae remain pearly white, plump, and glistening during the prepupal stage.
Pupae:
Within the individual cells capped with a beeswax cover provided by adult worker bees, the prepupae begin to change from their larval form to adult bees. Healthy pupae remain white and glistening during the initial stages of development, even though their bodies begin to take on adult forms. Compound eyes are the first feature begin to take on color; changing from white to brownish-purple. Soon after this, the rest of the body begins to take on the color of an adult bee. New workers, queens, and drones emerge approximately 12, 7 ½, and 14 ½ days, respectively, after their cells are capped.
Brood Patterns:
Healthy brood patterns are easily recognized when looking at capped brood. Frames of healthy capped worker brood normally have a solid pattern with few cells missed by the queen in her egg laying. Cappings are medium brown in color, convex, and without punctures (Figure 7). Because of developmental time, the ratio should be four times as many pupae as eggs and twice as many as larvae; drone brood is usually in patches around the margins of comb.
Honey
-Honey is 25% sweeter than table sugar.
-The darker the honey, the greater amount of antioxidant resorts it has.
-Honey is the only foodstuff that contains all of the necessary nutrients to sustain life.
Winter Prep
In the fall a reduction in the amounts of nectar and pollen coming into the hive causes less brood rearing and shrinking population. Depending on the age and egg-laying condition of the queen, the amount of old bees in the colony decreases. The young bees survive the winter, while the old ones gradually die. Propolis collected from the buds of trees is used to seal all cracks in the hive and reduce the size of the entrance to keep out cold air.
When nectar in the field becomes scarce, the workers drag the drones out of the hive and do not let them return, causing them to starve to death. Eliminating drones reduces the consumption of winter honey stores. When the temperature drops to 57° F, the bees begin to form a tight cluster.
Within this cluster the brood (consisting of eggs, larvae, and pupae) is kept warm-about 93° F – with heat generated by the bees. The egg laying of the queen bee tapers off and may stop completely during October or November, even if pollen is stored in the combs. During cold winters, the colony is put to its severest test of endurance. Under subtropical, tropical, and mild winter conditions, egg laying and brood rearing usually never stop.
As temperatures drop, the bees draw closer together to conserve heat. The outer layer of bees is tightly compressed, insulating the bees within the cluster. As the temperature rises and falls, the cluster expands and contracts. The bees within the cluster have access to the food stores. During warm periods, the cluster shifts its position to cover new areas of comb containing honey. An extremely prolonged cold spell can prohibit cluster movement, and the bees may starve to death only inches away from honey.
Species of Bees
An astonishing 25,000 or so species of bee have evolved to pollinate flowering plants. To put that in perspective, there are around 10,000 species of birds, and around 5,400 different mammals. Most people think a bee is plump, boldly striped with dense fur and a leisurely gait. But these are just bumblebees which account for only 1 per cent of bee species worldwide. Others believe all bees make honey and live together with a queen bee, workers and male drones, but few bees do this.
There are bees that lick human sweat; short-tongued and long-tongued bees; mining bees and furrow bees that nest in the ground; mason bees and leafcutter bees that live in hollow plant stems or tubes; flower bees who prefer old mortar, carpenter bees who excavate a home in tree stumps, and plasterer bees that line their nests with a waterproof substance.
A quarter of bee species have given up on making their own nest but instead take over other bees’ home, like a cuckoo bird. But wherever there are flowering plants, from windswept mountain tops to humid jungles and arid deserts, as well as our gardens and backyards, there will be bees to pollinate them.
In fact, most bee species don’t conform to the popular image of a bee. Some are large and round, but many are skinny and small. There are striped ones and metallic, colourful ones and others that are shiny black. Many bees only live for about six weeks, but others can live for years. A few bees are social insects, like ants, living in colonies of up to 100,000, but the majority are solitary bees who nest alone, but often next door to each other.
Native Bees
Because native bees make up a crucial chunk of our pollinators, we should give them the same attention as honey bees and put in as much effort to ensure their survival.
The native species of bees are each unique and resourceful in their own ways, naturally adapting to their environment. Bees are said to have been on earth for 135 millions years. Back before the bees, wind is widely believed to be the only pollinator.
RI Native Bees
Sweat bees are attracted to perspiration and consist of metallic and non-metallic bees. This family is one of the most common types of bees found, next to honey bees. Sweat bee species range across solitary, communal, semi-social, or eusocial behavior, making them one of the most diverse groups in terms of social behavior. They tend to nest in the ground.
Sweat bees are attracted to perspiration and consist of metallic and non-metallic bees. This family is one of the most common types of bees found, next to honey bees. Sweat bee species range across solitary, communal, semi-social, or eusocial behavior, making them one of the most diverse groups in terms of social behavior. They tend to nest in the ground.
-Halictidae
-Halictidae
Identifying Characteristics:
Most species are gray or black with a metallic sheen. A few species are red, green, or striped with yellow.
Generally small in size with a compact thorax (middle section) and larger abdomen (back section).
You might be most familiar with Sweat Bees from working outside in your yard on a hot day! They’re attracted to perspiration and can be a real nuisance when you’re trying to garden.
Fortunately, Sweat Bees are mostly harmless. Even if they sting, it’s relatively mild and painless compared to some other bees.
Many people have been told that Sweat Bees bite instead of stinging, but this isn’t true since they don’t have teeth! They eat nectar, so a mouth full of chompers wouldn’t do them any good. 🙂
These insects like sweat because they need to consume extra salt to stay alive, and our perspiration is the perfect salty snack for these tiny bees.
Bumble bees (Bombus) are vital pollinators of many types of plants, especially wildflowers, in North America. They are large in size and are social, living in colonies, and they usually nest in the ground.
Identifying Characteristics:
Fuzzy hair is colored with black and yellow stripes.
Large and round-bodied with a pointed head.
Although they don’t produce honey, they’re essential pollinators for fruit and vegetable crops. They feed on the nectar of flowering plants and collect pollen to feed their young. They visit many different flowers to collect pollen, gathering it in their corbiculae (small pouches on their hind legs).
Bumblebees can sting more than once because their stingers don’t stay in their victims. However, they’re generally docile and will only sting if their nest is in immediate danger. Although humans can be allergic to their venom, most Bumblebee stings don’t require medical attention.
Bumblebees live in colonies of up to 150 worker bees with one queen. There are over 250 different species in the Bumblebee family!
Large Carpenter Bees are one of two distinct groups of Carpenter Bees in Rhode Island.
Identifying Characteristics:
The coloring is shiny and black with some yellow coloring on the thorax.
Large Carpenter Bees are about the size of bumblebees.
Carpenter Bees, sometimes called Large Carpenter Bees, are more colorful and nest in larger, harder wood like telephone poles, dead logs, and suburban decks.
If you have an infestation of Carpenter Bees in your wooden deck, chances are you have Large Carpenter Bees, which are often confused with Bumblebees or Yellow Jackets. This species is much shinier than Bumblebees and doesn’t have the hair that makes Bumblebees look furry. In addition, carpenter bees are much less aggressive than Yellow Jackets, and their yellow coloring is not as pronounced.
Even though they’re often viewed as pests, Carpenter Bees are important pollinators of many plants. Wildflowers, fruit trees, and garden plants rely on Carpenter Bees to help pollinate and produce new offspring. Without these important bees, we would have a hard time growing any plants at all!
Small Carpenter Bees are unlike any other type of bee in Rhode Island.
Small Carpenter Bees are unlike any other type of bee in Rhode Island.
-Ceratina
Identifying Characteristics:
Small Carpenter Bees are forest green to blueish-black.
They’re narrower in the body than Large Carpenter Bees.
Small Carpenter Bees are black with a green or blue cast and prefer to nest in hollowed-out stems of plants like raspberry or sumac bushes.
These species are even more unusual than their larger relatives! They occasionally cohabitate with other females, unlike solitary Large Carpenter Bees. A couple of species are even parthenogenetic, meaning that there are no males of the species and the females produce offspring through genetic cloning!
Long-horned bees can be identified from the males’ long antennae. They tend to nest in the ground and are solitary. These bees are specialists, pollinating flowers of their choosing.
-Eucerini
Identifying Characteristics:
Coloring varies from tan to gray or black.
Their bodies are fuzzy, and their legs are covered in downy hair.
The males’ antennae are elongated, which is where these species got their name.
There are up to 30 species of Long-Horned Bees in Rhode Island!
This bee group nests in holes dug by females, typically under shrubbery. The nests are branched, with tiny “rooms” at the end of each branch where a single bee will overwinter. Long-horned bees are solitary for much of their life. I think of their nests as tiny apartments! 🙂
Look for Long-Horned Bees in wildflower prairies or sunflowers, which are the two main groups of flowers they pollinate. Some are specialist pollinators and only visit sunflowers. Occasionally, they will also visit melon, squash, and cotton plants, assisting with the pollination of these crops.
Mason Bees are considered the most docile bee in Rhode Island!
-Osmia
Identifying Characteristics:
Medium-sized, thick-bodied bees.
Their coloring is usually metallic greenish-blue, but some species are black or rusty red.
Mason Bees get their name from how they build their nests. They use mud, dirt, and clay to fill in the walls of tiny gaps in wood or stone, creating a pocket to live in! In fact, the bee houses you see sold at stores are made specifically for Mason Bees!
These species are solitary, which means the females nest and live alone, have their offspring, and mate with male bees of their choosing. There are no worker Mason Bees.
Farmers and other professionals regularly handle Mason Bees without being stung. They’re often kept on large farms to help with the growing process because they’re highly efficient pollinators.
Leaf Cutter Bees are one of the largest groups of bees in Rhode Island, with an estimated 1500 species!
Leaf Cutter Bees are one of the largest groups of bees in Rhode Island, with an estimated 1500 species!
-Megachilidae
Identifying Characteristics:
Large, hairy bees with black and white stripes on the abdomen. The belly often appears yellow from the pollen these species carry.
The huge oval eyes look fly-like compared to some other types of bees.
Leaf Cutter Bees take tiny circles of leaves and use them to line their nest cells. It’s thought to prevent the pollen and nectar from drying out before their young can hatch!
If you see round holes around the edges of your plants, you may have some Leaf Cutter Bees nesting nearby. Typically, they nest in the ground or rotting wood, building long, thin tunnels with individual compartments for each egg.
Leaf Cutter Bees are essential pollinators. They visit wildflowers, gardens, and commercial farming plants regularly.
There are many more species and things to explore on this topic. Do your own research if you will and send us anything interesting you find out at cbcsksd-ri.net
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