The honey bee and its economic importance

The honey bee lives in a highly developed social community in which there is a strict caste system and division of labour. The old queen does not leave the hive except when a new queen emerges. She then flies out in the company of thousands of bees in a swarm to start a new colony elsewhere. Several swarms may occur in a year. Within a week of emerging, the new queen goes on her nuptial flight. She flies high into the air, attracting a crowd of drones. One of them eventually mates with ere, but he dies soon afterwards; his reproductive organs are ripped out of his body during mating. The queen then flies back into the hive with enough sperm in her sperm pouch to fertilize the eggs she will lay during her lifetime. She may live for three years. The eggs are laid at the rate of about 2000 a day. They are laid, one in each cell, stuck to the inner wall of the cell. A fertilized egg hatches into a larva, which undergoes complete metamorphoses to become either a queen or a worker. An unfertilized egg gives rise to a drone. The larva destined to become a queen develops in a special enlarged cell. It is fed on a special food which is secreted from a gland in the head of the worker bee. This is known as ‘royal jelly’. The other larvae, in smaller cells, are fed on royal jelly also for the first few days, after which their diet is switched to pollen and honey. Honey, which the bee produces, is eaten by people. It contains a mixture of sugars, especially glucose and fructose. It is also used for sweetening syrups and toffees and in preparing certain drugs. The beeswax which the honey bee produces is used in making candles, floor, waxes and polishes. The honey bee is one of the most important agents of pollination in a number of plants. As it moves from one flower to another, collecting pollen and feeding on nectar, some pollen may be transferred from one flower to another of the same species, resulting in pollination.