A Honey Bee at Work in an Herb Garden

Photo © 2010 Susan Wiedmann. This photos shows a female honey bee, or worker bee, gathering nectar in an herb garden. She had her choice of blooming... more

by Susan Wiedmann

Title

A Honey Bee at Work in an Herb Garden

Artist

Susan Wiedmann

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Photo © 2010 Susan Wiedmann. This photos shows a female honey bee, or worker bee, gathering nectar in an herb garden. She had her choice of blooming flowers that day since only a couple other honey bees were competing with her.

Honey bees are members of the genus Apis. The females do not reproduce but spend their short lives gathering nectar and pollen that their hive sisters will turn into honey. A hive can easily house around 60,000 bees in the summer, but far fewer afterwards. They also do the housekeeping and attend to other hive matters. Female honey bees only live for about six weeks during summertime but up to nine months if they are born just before winter. It is the females who have the dreaded stingers; they die shortly after the stinger has been ejected.

Male honey bees, or drones, are born from unfertilized eggs. They exist for the sole purpose of mating with the queen honey bee and die after mating. If winter arrives first, they are driven from the hive.

Each hive has one queen bee. She can lay around 2,000 eggs a day and lives for three to five years. When it is time for a new queen, the other bees will feed a special pollen called royal jelly to a larva in the hive. It will become the new queen bee in a couple weeks.

The above facts are from the Back Yard Bee Keepers Association.

All Rights Reserved. This image may NOT be duplicated in any form without written permission from Susan Wiedmann.

Uploaded

August 7th, 2018