For almost 10 years, beekeepers, scientists, and environmentalists have sounded the alarm about disappearing bees.
The phenomenon, called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), occurs when otherwise healthy bees collectively abandon their hives.
Defining & Explaining the Colony Collapse Disorder
The term "Colony Collapse Disorder", or CCD, is often incorrectly used as a blanket term to refer to the trend of bee decline. However, this decline has a number of causes and takes a number of forms
CCD only refers to phenomenon characterized by the sudden -- overnight, in some cases -- loss of the vast majority of the hive, leaving a queen, full brood (larvae) cells, and full honey stores behind.
In collapsed hives, no dead bees are found, puzzling scientists and posing a major challenge to the study of the disease.
The USDA has been studying the phenomenon since 2009, when it became apparent that Colony Collapse was not something that would disappear on its own.
CCD, while alarming, is not the main reason behind the mass die-off of the bees, and is much less common today than when we first started hearing about it in the media.
There are three different types of bees in a honey bee hive; Worker, Drone, & Queen. (fig. 2)
What is the queen bee? She is recognized by her abdomen, which is smooth & elongated, and extends beyond her folded wings.
What is the queen bee’s role? Normally, the queen bee is the only reproductive female in the colony. Production is the process of egg-laying in the early spring or when the first fresh pollen is brought home by the workers. Egg production will continue until fall or until pollen is available. The queen can lay up to as many as 2000 eggs each day! Younger queens produce many more eggs, while older queens produce excessive drones.
What is the lifespan of a queen bee? Typically, she can live up to 5 years, but her period of usefulness rarely exceeds two or three years. Beekeepers tend to re-queen every year or two.
What is the queen substance? It is a mixture of chemicals passed individually from bee to bee throughout the entire hive as they share food. If the queen was removed from the colony, the workers would notice it within several hours because of the drop in the level of this substance. A "queen-less" state means a new emergency queen needs to come from the youngest available larvae (1-3 days old). The presence of this substances also inhibits the development of the workers' ovaries. After a period of long time without the queen, some workers may become laying workers.
What are the worker bees? It is a smaller bee, but the most numerous bee. All worker bees are female, but not able to reproduce. They are not able to mate, but it case of a queen-less colony, workers may begin to lay unfertilized eggs, which develop into drone bees. They have well-developed compound eyes on the sides of their heads & well-developed, elongated tongue for taking up nectar from flowers.
What are the tasks of worker bees in a colony? Worker bees secrete the wax used in the hives & form it into honeycombs, forage for all of the nectar & pollen brought into the hives, then transfer the nectar into honey, produce royal jelly to feed to the queen & young larvae, tend to the needs of the larvae & queen, remove debris & dead bees from hive, defend the hive against intruders and maintain optimal conditions by heating/cooling/ventilating the hive
What is the lifespan of a worker bee? The worker bee lives about five to six weeks. The first two weeks of their life, they are considered house bees, which consists of doing tasks only in the hives. For the remainder of their time, they are field bees, which means they forage for food outside the hive.
The average worker bee makes about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in their lifetime!
What are drone bees? They are the male honey bee. They are visibly larger & stouter than worker bees.
What is the role of a drone bee? Their only function is to fertilize a young queen bee. Drone production stops in the late summer, as the food availability declines. The do not tend to the brood, produce wax, or even collect pollen or nectar. They feed themselves directly from honey bells in the hive, or beg for food from the worker bees. Their day is divided between periods of resting & eating. Along with that, they are in charge of patrolling mating sites, which are known as "Drone Congregation Areas".
There are 20,000 species of bees. Ants and wasps are carnivorous, while bees are completely herbivorous. All of the bee's nutrition comes from pollen and nectar of flowers. Tropical regions of Africa, Australia, and the America's have native stingless bees for honey production. There is no "perfect" honey bee for all locations, but the mixtures of traits each bee possess can help the beekeeper choose a variety that may do well in a particular climate.
Bee Basic Facts
Bees have five eyes ~ Bees can fly about 20 MPH ~ Losing its stinger will cause a bee to die ~ Bees have existed for about 30 million years ~ Bees carry pollen on their hind legs in a pollen basket or corbicula ~ an average beehive can hold around 50,000 bees ~ Nectar from 2 million flowers makes 1 pound of honey ~Bees communicate through chemicals called pheromones
Why Are Bees So Important
Bees are the center of our food cycle! Without them, we couldn't exist.
California is the best example of why bees are used and why they are important. California is lead producer in almonds, which is a bee-pollinated crop. Because of that, about 75% of honey bee hives are in California and are being used to produce almonds. Without bees, almonds wouldn't be able to grow and without the income from the sale of almonds, California's economy would plummet.
Without honeybees, the economy would take a significant hit. Fewer bees means less beekeepers, so jobs will be lost. With no bees to pollinate crops, farmers will suffer as well. Without crops to feed people, humans will start to scramble for enough food and eventually starve. The equation is quite simple: no bees = no crops, no crops = famine and quite possibly the downfall of life as we know it.
Effects of Colony Collapse Disorder
Although small individually, bees make a huge impact. Without them working together in their colonies, a lot can go wrong.
The biggest impact is in the Agricultural industry. Believe it or not, farmers rent these colonies to pollinate their crops. “Of 100 crop species that provide 90% of our global food supply, 71 are bee-pollinated.” This means without the bees, humans would have a shortage of food.
Along with lack of food for the greater population, the "disappearing of these colonies effects hard working bee keepers and farmers greatly. The less they sell, the less money they make.“The value of pollination of food crops by bees in the U.S. alone is estimated at $16 billion and insect pollinators in general contribute $29 billion to U.S. farm income.”
Besides how it effects us, the shortage of food would also effect our livestock. Without feed, their numbers would decrease and then we really would not have any food.
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