Unit 1: Biology of Bees

1. History, Classification and Biology of Honey Bees
2. Social Organization of Bee Colony

1. History, Classification and Biology of Honey Bees

History

Apiculture, or beekeeping, is the practice of maintaining honey bee colonies, commonly in man-made hives. It's an ancient practice:

Honey Hunting: Early humans hunted wild bee colonies for honey, a risky process.
Traditional Beekeeping: People began "keeping" bees in simple, fixed-comb hives like hollow logs, clay pots, or baskets. This was better than hunting, but honey extraction often destroyed the colony.
Modern Beekeeping: In 1851, L.L. Langstroth discovered the "bee space," leading to the invention of the movable-frame hive. This revolutionized beekeeping, as it allowed beekeepers to inspect colonies and extract honey without harming the bees or the comb.

Classification

Honey bees are insects, classified as follows:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Apidae
Genus: Apis

Key species relevant to apiculture:

Apis mellifera (European Honey Bee): The most widely domesticated species globally.
Apis cerana indica (Indian Honey Bee): A native Indian species, commonly hived.
Apis dorsata (Rock Bee): A large, wild bee; aggressive and not hived.
Apis florea (Little Bee): A small, wild bee; also not hived.
Trigona (Stingless Bee): Can be hived, produces small amounts of medicinal honey.

Biology of Honey Bees

Honey bees are social insects that undergo complete metamorphosis.

Life Cycle: Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult

Egg: The queen lays a single egg in each hexagonal wax cell.
Larva: The egg hatches into a white, legless larva, which is fed by nurse bees.
Pupa: The larva grows, and the cell is capped with wax. Inside, the larva spins a cocoon and transforms into a pupa, where it develops adult features.
Adult: The adult bee emerges from the capped cell.

Haplo-diploidy: This is the genetic system of honey bees.

Females (Queen & Workers): Develop from fertilized eggs (diploid, 32 chromosomes).
Males (Drones): Develop from unfertilized eggs (haploid, 16 chromosomes) via parthenogenesis.

2. Social Organization of Bee Colony

Honey bee colonies are "superorganisms" with a highly organized social structure, known as a caste system. A colony consists of three distinct types (castes) of bees.

Caste	Queen	Drone (Male)	Worker (Sterile Female)
Development	Fertilized egg (Diploid)	Unfertilized egg (Haploid)	Fertilized egg (Diploid)
Primary Function	Egg-laying (can lay up to 2000 eggs/day). Controls colony with pheromones.	Mating with a new queen (virgin queen).	All other tasks: foraging, feeding, defense, cleaning, building.
Key Features	Largest bee in the colony. Long, tapered abdomen. Smooth stinger (can sting multiple times).	Larger than worker, robust. Huge eyes that meet at the top. No stinger. No pollen baskets.	Smallest and most numerous. Barbed stinger (dies after stinging). Has pollen baskets (corbicula) on hind legs.
Lifespan	2-5 years	~1-3 months (or until mating)	~6 weeks (summer) to 6 months (winter)

Division of Labor in Workers

Workers perform a sequence of jobs based on their age:

Cleaning (Days 1-2): Cleans cells.
Nursing (Days 3-10): Feeds larvae (first with royal jelly, then bee bread).
Building (Days 11-20): Wax glands develop; builds and repairs comb.
Guarding (Days 18-21): Guards the hive entrance.
Foraging (Day 22+): The final job. Collects nectar, pollen, water, and propolis.

Exam Tip: A key part of "Social Organization" is communication. Bees use:

Pheromones: Chemical signals (e.g., the Queen Mandibular Pheromone) to control the colony.
Dance Language: (Discovered by Karl von Frisch)
- Round Dance: For food sources close to the hive.
- Waggle Dance: For distant food sources, indicating direction (relative to the sun) and distance.

Unit 1: Biology of Bees

Did this help you understand better?