What makes a queen bee a queen?

Transcription

1 Issue No. 15 Oct~Dec 2014 IN THIS ISSUE Cover story: What makes a queen bee a queen? Page 3: The must do s during colony division Page 4: The forms of re-queening a colony in beekeeping Page 6: Is it bee-killing, bee-having or bee-keeping? What makes a queen bee a queen? The queen bee is the only reproductive female in the hive. Her job is to lay eggs and produce queen substance (pheromones). When a new queen starts life, she mates only once with drones outside the hive. The queen is unique because it has a mandibular gland. It secretes queen pheromones that do the following; Inhibits construction of further queen cells by worker bees. Restricts ovary development in the workers. Attracts drones to the queen on her mating flight. Attracts the workers to the queen in the hive. Helps a swarm or colony move as a cohesive unit. (Cont d on Page 2)

2 Page 2 Issue 15 The Queen bee with her large thorax and anatomy of the head highlighting the mandibular gland. What makes a queen bee a queen? (cont d) A queen bee controls all activities that are carried out in the colony as well as the behavior of the colony. The strength of the colony depends on the performance of the queen. A lazy queen that lays few eggs or more unfertilized eggs will make the colony to be dormant. Unfertilized eggs hatch to become drone bees that do don t produce honey. The queen is physiologically larger in body size. It has a cylindrical abdomen big enough to accommodate the well developed reproductive female parts adopted for egg laying. The queen has wings that cover the whole abdomen that is a light wood varnish colour larger thorax and head parts as compared to worker bees. The queen develops from larvae specially fed with royal jelly by the worker bees in order to become sexually mature. There is normally only one queen in a hive. The workers will usually follow and fiercely protect her. A well-fed queen of quality stock can lay about 1,500 eggs per day (more than her own bodyweight in eggs). She is continuously surrounded by worker bees who meet her every need - feeding her and disposing of her waste. The attendant worker bees also collect and then distribute queen mandibular pheromone, a pheromone that inhibits the workers from starting queen cells.

3 Page 3 Issue 15 The must do s during colony division Dividing a hive colony can help prevent swarming and create two more productive hives from the one. Some tips to remember: The hive with the old queen should be moved to a new location and the new colony should be left in the old or original location such that the returning foragers from the field can enter the new hive and increase the hive population. During colony division, include young and mature brood in the new colony/hive. Include the combs have 1-2 days old eggs in case there is a problem on all the developing queen bees in the queen cells, the bees can still raise another queen in 3-4 days. If larvae is not present in the new hive, take a comb/frame with fresh larvae from the old hive and place it in the new hive for the bees to raise a new queen. This is because bees produce royal jelly at the age of 3-10 days. Make sure you carry out supplementary feeding of the two colonies after carrying out colony division to strengthen each hive. Observations in the new hive should be made at the earliest after 14 days for better supervision of the progress of the colony. If you are limited of space, make sure you notify the neighbors of your new interventions so that they can be careful of their animals. Your apiary must have shade, this helps in temperature regulation in cases of extreme sunshine, when setting your hives make sure you note the direction of sunshine. Morning sunshine is important for the bees because it gives them energy to start working very early and in the afternoon,. Look after your apiary properly and you will be rewarded with high quality, sweet golden honey!

4 Page 4 Issue 15 The forms of re-queening a colony Re-queening is a practice of introducing a young queen in to an old colony to replace the old unproductive queen. It is a vital practice through which a beekeeper can improve the strength and productivity of the beehive. Also it helps to control swarming of bees. Re-queening can be carried out after every two to three years when the old queen becomes non-productive or a failing queen. This can be carried out in a number of ways; Grafting Method 1. Grafting 1-2 day old eggs into queen cell cups using a grafting needle, then putting the top bar or frame with the fixed queen cups inside the hive with a colony so that the nurse bees can fill the eggs in the cups with royal jelly. At the larvae stage of the developing queens, put a queen cage around the queen cells. After the queens emerge, each one can be introduced in another colony to replace the old queen. Cross section of the queen larvae that hang vertically from the honeycomb. Doolittle Method 2. Re-queening can be carried out simply with not many skills by taking 1-2 brood and fresh worker brood frames or top bars from a strong colony and swap Queen caging During colony division and swarm capturing, caging the queen is necessary because it will assure you that the worker bees remain in the hive. They live to protect her as well as the colony and this makes them always stay where the queen is. If a rare case of bees absconding occurs it means that the caged bee was not the queen and you mistakably left the queen bee free and another bee was caged instead. Another reason is the queen was too old or too lazy to control the colony the bees decide to supersede her and move on.

5 Page 5 Issue 15 The forms of re-queening a colony (cont d) them to a colony with an old weak or failing queen so that the failed colony will raise a new queen and reject the old and less active one. In this way successful re-queening has been carried out. Supercedure Method 3. Carried out indirectly by encouraging and forcing a colony to raise a new queen. This is done by killing the queen in that colony to become queen-less. The worker bees will select young larvae from the comb, feed them on royal jelly to produce queens. They will create three to six queen cells. When the first queen appears she will kill the other queens. For more comprehensive information on queen rearing please go to our tutorials page on our website at ***Interestly the victorious queen when she emerges from her cell makes a particular sound called Quarking the other queens still in their cells will respond leading her to them and their untimely death. Get our new book ~ Beekeeping as a Business A comprehensive guide to commercial beekeeping - apiary selection, baiting, equipment usage, maximising your profit, processing, queen rearing, bee theory and much more... Pre-order your copy now for ony 15,000Ushs (20,000) Call

6 Page 6 Issue 15 Is it bee-killing, bee-having or bee-keeping? Bee-killing (Honey hunting) Honey has been hunted and robbed from wild bee nests for generations. The hunter will look for wild colonies in forests. Using fire and smoke to control the bees they will take the honeycomb and often the bees will abscond. Also when this happens the nests are destroyed and bees are killed by using fire resulting into environmental destruction. It is a process still employed today as it does not involve investment or expenditure. This system is discouraging to keeping of bees with the bees behaviour becoming more and more aggressive from being attacked by humans. Also honey collected is also of poor quality with honeycombs mixed with larvae, pollen and old comb. There is also alot of smoke and ash that taints the smell and flavour of the honey. Bee-having Is a term commonly associated with farmers who have beehives but do not apply methods of formal beekeeping such as apiary maintenance or pest control. Harvesting methods used are generally similar to the above honey hunting method using fire and smoke. Here you have bees in a formal apiary on the farm and allow regular harvesting. It is a transitional step to formal beekeepings system that is a step in the right direction but the farmer is not making the most of it and enjoying large harvests of honey and other hive products.

7 Page 7 Issue 15 Is it bee-killing, bee-having or bee-keeping? (cont d) Beehives commonly used can be any as it is the methodology used rather than the hive itself that defines the practise. Bees can be housed in hollowed sections of tree trunks, clay pots, gourds, bark hives, or woven twigs and mud baskets that make it difficult to employ formal beekeeping practises. Combs are fixed on the hive ceiling are difficult to manipulate. The farmer provides protection to the bee colony in return for periodic harvests of honey, wax and other bee products. The idea is to maintain the colony for future harvests instead of destroying it for a one-time harvest. Both bee-killing and bee-having are carried on with very little understanding of technical use. It is not uncommon to find bee-having among farmers who have relatively sophisticated equipment which allows for management of their colonies. They remain bee-haver s because they lack the training to make optimal use of their equipment. Bee-keeping Here beehives are kept in a formal apiary similar to bee-having. Designs such as Kenyan top-bar hives and Langstroth hives in which combs are manipulated in movable hives without disturbing neighboring combs. Beekeeping implies the manipulation of a bee colony based on some understanding of the bees. Bees are furthermore conserved and more yields of hive or bee products are harvested regularly for years to come. Also it involves utilising beekeeping equipment that protects you from being stung, prevents bee deaths and for ease okf management and harvesting working with this painful but sweet providing creature. Beekeeping therefore can be lucrative at any level of technology, but the level used should fit together with the local cultural,environmental and economic reality.

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