Honeybee Biology and Management

Honeybee Gallery
Honeybee Publications

Some facts about the honeybee:

  • First managed by humans around 5,000 B.C.E. for honey
  • Colonies were housed in clay vessels or baskets
  • The honeybee is highly social
  • A division of labor is strongly developed
  • There are three castes:
    • Queen – female reproductive, lays all the eggs in the colony
    • Drone – reproductive male
    • Worker – sterile female, does all foraging, larval rearing and colony maintenance
  • Long-tongued: enables them to visit a wide variety of flowers
  • Mouthparts form a “straw” which allows them to suck up nectar
  • Wax is secreted from their bodies and used to construct comb
  • Wax comb is used to store honey, pollen and house larvae and pupae
  • Workers readily defend their colony
  • Sting is barbed to ensure maximum envenomation (unique among insects)
  • Stinger and venom sack is pulled from the body of the bee which leads to the bees death
  • Communicate using a dance language inside the hive; tells the direction, distance and quality of food
  • Responsible for 80% of all insect pollination in the U.S.
  • Worth approximately $14.6 billion to U.S. agriculture

Africanized (“killer”) bees

  • have killed 6 people in the U.S. so far
  • are identical in appearance to European Honeybees
  • sting has same strength as European honeybees
  • responds more quickly and in greater numbers to percieved threats to the colony

 What to do if attacked:

  • Run until they stop chasing
  • Get indoors
  • Get victim to hospital immediately
  • Scrape stingers out with a fingernail

Other recent threats to the honeybee industry

  • Varroa mites – large external mites that feed on developing larvae
  • Tracheal mites – tiny mites that feed on inside of bees tracheal (breathing) system
  • Small hive beetle
  • Resistance of American Foulbrood to Oxytetracyline
  • Red imported fire ants found on honeybee equipment resulting in quarantine holds for bees entering California
  • Price of honey dropped from $0.91 per pound in Jan. 1997 to $0.61 per pound in Aug. 2000

For More information about honeybees: