The bee hive is an extremely well orga- nized colony, and the Queen is at the head of it all; the Queen is the dedicated ruler. Even though there are male bees in the colony, they don’t do very much. The drone or male bee basically eats
and fertilizes the virgin queens. Now, imagine that for a life? Hmmm . . . not sure I’d want it, because in the fall, when food gets short, the female worker bees actually kick all those boys out. Not only that, but if the drones do get to mate, they die right after! So think twice before you say, “If only I were a male bee.” The Queen actually has the capability,
depending on the cell size, to determine whether she wants to lay a female or a male egg. (If only we knew what went on inside of her brain, oh, then Shake- speare would have a story to tell. My, do I ever get off the topic easily; we’re talking about bees, not Shakespeare.) So, after the queen lays the egg, assum-
ing it’s a worker bee egg, it’ll emerge from its cell in 21 days, and as soon as it emerges it starts housecleaning! Amaz- ing isn’t it? It’s like it was born with its own brain; I mean, really. When the queen lays a Queen egg, it’ll emerge in 16 days, but takes 23 days to the start of fertility. The drone or male bee, from egg to emergence, takes 24 to 38 days. It’s quite a cycle. And this is why when bees are killed, it takes a while for us beekeep- ers to get the colony established again. It often means no honey for the entire year, depending on the time of destruction. What kills bees?
So what kills bees? As a beekeeper
there are many things that factor in. It could be aerial crop spraying, or even just spraying at the wrong time of day. It’s important to spray in the morning or evening, before the bees are out. It could be something from wildlife, such as a bear or even a skunk! And yes, even humans will destroy hives. There have been times when we will pull up to a bee yard, only to find it destroyed. It’s not wildlife, or sprays that have done it, but our fellow man. Often times it’s someone who’s driven over the beehives just for the sport of it. Or someone on a dirt bike driving by and kicking the hive, leaving it open to the environment, which kills the bees.
Bee talk Bees really are an amazing insect.
Getting stung is a pitfall of being a beekeeper - but the rewards are many. 10 • Early Spring 2014
Often we’ll be out working with them and going through the hive, and we’ll see one of the workers come in; she’s loaded for bear and her pollen buckets are a nice golden color. She’s excited because she’s tasted the first of spring’s nectar and can hardly wait to tell the rest of the colony.
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