Bees Identify Nest Mates

 

Drones are the male reproductive members of the honey bee hive. Drones perform no work in the hive and have but one duty: They mate with queen bees. In the Mid-South, colonies produce queens from April through August, and these queens mate a few days after queens emerge as adults. Since drones serve no purpose to the bees during the winter, colonies drive all drones from the hive in the fall. Removing non-working drones from the hive helps conserve winter food stores and ensure colony survival. There is one instance, though, when drones are not removed from the hive. Queenless colonies often retain their drones through the winter. While making a recent inspection of my hives, I found that most of the drones had been driven from the hives. However, one hive held a number of drones, a situation that calls for further investigation. Normally, beekeepers don’t need to find a queen, only evidence that the colony has one and that she is laying eggs. In today’s photo, we see the queen, a healthy, young queen, marked in blue. This queen was introduced into the hive in late summer, and she is laying plenty of eggs. A number of drones, bees larger than the workers, are visible in the photo.

 

An important part of our fall hive set-up for winter involves determining that every hive has enough honey to sustain the colony through the winter. With decreasing forage available for the bees to make honey, bees will readily rob honey from any hive if its colony is too weak to defend itself. Every hive is protected by guard bees that check bees attempting to enter. Bees not belonging to the colony are rejected by the guards. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found a mechanism for bees identifying hive mates. See https://phys.org/news/2020-10-gut-bacteria-key-bee-id.html?. They found that bacteria in the bees’ gut affects the odor of the bees’ exoskeletons. Guard bees identify bees belonging in their hive by their distinct odor.

--Richard

Ejecting the Drones

Honey bee colonies are made up of large numbers of bees, but they rely upon only a few bees for reproduction. Each colony has one female reproductive member, the queen, and a few hundred male reproductive members, the drones. The remainder of the colony’s bees, numbering in the thousands, are workers, female bees that do not have complete reproductive systems. Each of these three castes of bees has specific roles in the life of the colony. The queen lays all of the eggs; the workers perform all of the tasks involved in collecting food and feeding the developing bees. However, the drones have a sole purpose: They provide sperm for the reproduction of new queens and workers. Drones don’t do any of the work in the hive; they don’t gather food; they consume the food produced by the workers. Drones are solely available to mate with newly emerged queen bees. At the times of the year when honey bees are producing new queens, drones meet these queen bees and mate in flight in aerial spaces known as drone concentration areas.

The time that queen production and mating occurs is spring through fall. Honey bees don’t produce queens in the winter, so there is no need at that time for drones. Keeping drones in the hive during cold weather drains precious winter food resources. As winter approaches, workers forcefully eject the drones from their hives. Some drones are drug out of the hive by workers, pulling the larger drones by their legs and wings as in today’s photo. Some drones are stung to death by their sister workers. It is common to find dead drones on the ground as cold weather approaches. The number of drones that beekeepers find in their hives depends upon whether the colonies are producing queens. Newly established colonies will have few drones, and there will be few drones during late summer nectar dearths. One exception exists: queenless colonies will often retain their drones through the winter.

--Richard

The Winter Solstice

Human societies throughout the world have measured their calendars according to the changes in seasons. Today is the winter solstice, the day with the shortest sunlight and longest night. Peoples around the world have studied the change through the year in the length of the day and the angle of the sun. Early agrarian societies observed the movement of the sun and learned to time the planting of their crops with changes in seasons. This timing was important for maximizing the reproduction of precious crop seeds for feeding expanding human populations. Just as plant reproduction is associated with the seasons, so is the reproduction of many animal species. Today, on the winter solstice, honey bee queens start reproducing the first young for the next year. Most colonies interrupted their queen from laying eggs in the fall by restricting the food they feed her.

Successful reproduction is so important that it leads the activity of most species. The process is not always accurate, though. A report in The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/science/in-nature-fatal-attractions-can-be-part-of-life.html, describes attempts in nature for reproduction between members of different species. Antarctic fur seals occasionally attempt to mate with king penguins, birds that the seals normally hunt and eat. It is unknown whether such acts, known as “misdirected mating,” are simply a matter of mistaken identity or if there is another cause. The Times piece also describes misdirected mating involving California sea otters and Pacific harbor seals. In the Bahamas, bottlenose dolphins regularly attack smaller spotted dolphins in acts of sexual violence. Similar occurrences of misdirected mating occur in a number of other animal species. At Peace Bee Farm, we regularly observe drone honey bees chasing purple martins as if they were following a queen bee. Today’s photo, taken in July, shows three drones in pursuit of a purple martin. Today, the winter solstice, the migratory martins are in their winter home in South America. Two bald eagles circle the bee farm; the bees remain clustered in their hives.

--Richard

Queen Mating Flights

Queen bees mate in flight. In areas where Africanized Honey Bee genes are not prevalent, honey bee queens are allowed to mate with drones in the area. These “open mated” queens typically receive genetic material from between 12 and 20 drones when they fly into drone concentration areas. Having a large number of drones in the area insures that the queens will pass along to their offspring a great number of traits for survival in a rapidly changing environment. Beekeepers can increase the number of drones with desirable traits available to mate with queens by increasing the amount of drone comb in hives with favored traits. By adding frames of drone brood foundation, beekeepers can designate certain hives as “drone mother” hives. The process of drone saturation can lead to improved genetics throughout the bee yard when new queens are reared by the beekeeper or when colonies naturally supersede their queen.

New queens are being reared in mating nucleus hives as shown in today’s picture. The queens emerge as adults on day 16 after rapidly progressing through the stages of egg, larva, and pupa. After waiting five or six days in the hive in which their reproductive organs continue to develop, virgin queens make mating flights. It is important that the queens return to their own hive; they will be killed if they wander into another hive. The beekeeper can help insure the queens find their proper hive by randomly placing the hives and altering the hives’ appearance with paint color and patterns. Hives here are pointed in opposite directions to allow virgin queens to orient toward a particular mating nucleus hive. After the queens return from their mating flights, they wait another five or six days while their reproductive organs continue developing before they begin laying eggs. Feeding the mating nucleus colonies throughout the two weeks of development after the queen’s emergence is important. A strong nectar flow also helps ensure the queens receive adequate nutrition during their development.

--Richard

Drones Go to Work

One of my beekeeping friends recently asked me what it means when you find a large number of drones in the hive. My response may not have elicited great confidence in me. I said that finding great numbers of drones in the hive might mean that the hive is in trouble, or it might mean that the hive is healthy. Shirley Murphy watched a hive with an exceptionally large population of drones slowly dwindle. At the time that the problem started, she didn’t have extra queens or brood and bees available to help her take corrective action. When these became available to her, she found the colony near collapse. Only the queen and a few attendant bees remained in the hive. Wax moths had started consuming the honeycomb, leaving a mess of webbing and feces. A mouse had moved into the unguarded hive. The hive problem, which first presented itself with a large population of drones, started when the queen depleted her lifetime supply of sperm that she gathered at mating time. Without sperm, she could not lay fertile eggs to produce workers or queens; she could only produce the male drones from her infertile eggs. Honey bees produce offspring by either fertile or infertile eggs. Reproduction from infertile eggs, known as parthenogenesis, is unique in the insect order hymenoptera. The order includes bees, wasps, and ants.

A visit to the Peace Bee Farm hives on display at the Children’s Museum of Memphis found large numbers of drones in each hive. Here, the colonies were strong and healthy. Large numbers of drones were being produced to provide male reproductive bees to mate with queen bees. This is a normal occurrence in the spring. If you click on the photo, you can see a number of drones, the larger bees, leaving and entering the hive. The drones fly from two to four hours each afternoon searching for queens. Mating in flight with queen bees is the sole work of drones.

--Richard

Marking a Queen Bee

Being social insects, honey bees share in the duties of the hive. Each individual does not perform all of the daily tasks of the hive. The workers assume different roles and perform the needed colony tasks. The worker bees’ roles change as they age. As these bees age, their various glands develop; and they change in their ability to produce brood food, secrete beeswax, produce an effective sting, and perform various tasks. For this reason, the workers pass through a series of tasks throughout their life. Among the shared tasks performed by the bees are cleaning of the nest, feeding the brood, feeding and tending to the queen, guarding the hive, secreting beeswax, building honey comb, cooling the hive, moving honey and pollen about the hive, foraging for nectar and pollen, and curing honey.

While the honey bee colony shares in collecting, preparing, and storing food, tending to the hive, and feeding and caring for the brood, the colony also employs a common means of reproduction. A single queen bee produces all of the eggs that will become the population of the colony. The male bees, the drones, serve a single role. The drones mate with queen bees. Since the drones never mate with queens inside the hive, they add genetic diversity to surrounding colonies. The queen bee is more likely to be mating with drones from various distant colonies. Since the population of the colony and its success is dependent upon one bee, the queen, she is of utmost importance to the colony. Many beekeepers mark their queens to be able to match the colony’s traits to an individual queen. Honey bee colonies regularly replace their queens through a process called supersedure. If a queen bee is found in the hive without the appropriate marking, it is likely that the queen has been superseded. In the photo, Shirley, Mike, and I are marking a queen bee with a dot of paint on the bees’ thorax.
--Richard

Fighting Mites in New Ways

The Varroa mite is the greatest killer of honey bees. These pin-head sized mites attach to the developing brood and adult bees and suck their blood, which is called hemolymph. Of course, the blood sucking by these parasitic mites weakens the bees. The mites also vector in a number of honey bee diseases as well. At least 15 honey bee viruses have been identified in the bees in the United States. One of the viruses associated with Varroa mites is Deformed Wing Virus. When a beekeeper finds bees with short, curled wings as well as weak, crawling bees, it is a sign of Parasitic Mite Syndrome, a Varroa-vectored virus. Colonies in this condition are often leading to a rapid collapse.

Researchers are attempting to develop methods of reducing Varroa mites without the use of chemical miticides. The continuous use of pesticides, like the insecticides and miticides, often lead to chemical-resistant strains of the pests being treated. Researchers with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service are developing a scent which attracts the Varroa mites and leads them to a sticky trap. See www.ars.usda.gov/is/ar/archive/jul09. The use of the scent is a biological control, and the use of the sticky trap is a mechanical control. Both biological and mechanical controls are favorable approaches to reducing mites, as they do not lead to the evolution of resistant strains of Varroa. This occurred with the use of Fluvalinate and Coumaphos miticides over only a few years since the introduction of parasitic mites into the United States in the late 1980s. Click on today’s picture to see a close-up view of a Varroa mite, which has penetrated the surface of a honey bee drone pupa with its mouth parts. The puncture wound on the pupa is a good point of entry for viruses. Shirley Murphy took this photo of the mite we found while examining drone brood foundation. Varroa prefer to reproduce in drone brood, which has the longest development time.
--Richard

Drone Brood Comb

Honey bees build their nest from combs configured around six-sided cells of two sizes. The majority of the bee hive consists of sheets of comb with five cells per inch. This size cell is used by the honey bees to rear their brood and to store honey and pollen. The bees also build comb with cells that are slightly larger, measuring about four cells per inch. The larger cells are used for rearing drone brood; but if the colony does not need additional drones, worker bees will use the drone brood cells to store honey. Honey bees typically build their drone brood cells along the lower edge of worker brood frames and on burr comb, any comb that is not built in straight, parallel sheets. Honey bees readily draw-out drone brood cells on frames of drone brood foundation. These frames can be a useful part of an integrated pest management plan.

Desirable honey bee genes can be increased in the drone concentration areas by using drone brood frames. Freezing the drone brood frames is a good method of removing bees with bad traits from the gene pool. Also, freezing the drones from queen mother hives lessens inbreeding. Using drone brood frames has other benefits. With drone brood foundation available, the bees build less burr comb, resulting in fewer places for small hive beetles to hide. The drone brood frames provide a useful place to sample Varroa mites. The mites can be easily measured by removing a number of drone pupae from their capped cells. Excessive mite loads can be reduced by freezing the frames of drone brood. Replacing the frozen drone frames in the hives is a method of testing the hygienic behavior of the bees. The more hygienic bees will quickly remove the pupae killed in the freezer. At Peace Bee Farm, 10 percent of all brood frames are the green-colored drone foundation frames. The pictured bee with the large eyes is a drone; he is surrounded by workers. A drone larva is in the upper-left cell.
--Richard

Honey Bees are Resilient

This has truly been a year of unusual weather here in the Arkansas Delta. We have seen cooler temperatures and more rain than normal. The change in the weather has caused a considerable reduction in the production of nectar by some of the reliable bee plants. This was often due to the reduction in photosynthesis on overcast days causing a lesser amount of the sugars to be produced by the plants. Sugars produced were often more diluted than normal. Further, rain washed much of the nectar from exposed flowers. With a weak nectar flow, the honey bees shifted to survival behaviors. They killed their drones on several occasions through the summer, an event that usually occurs after the first frost of late fall. Bees were also observed cannibalizing their brood. Many colonies withheld food from their queen causing her to stop brood production. Each of these actions by the bees meant less food would need to be consumed by the colony. The colonies were able to adjust their food requirements in response to the changing conditions

With a diminished food supply of nectar from the flowering plants, the honey bee colonies also consumed large portions of their stores of honey. The honey bee is the only insect in the temperate zone that stays active throughout the year. All other insects either die off annually or go into hibernation. The honey bee exists over winter by consuming its high-energy food, honey. Beekeepers throughout the region are finding that there is not a great surplus of honey in the hives this year. Today’s picture shows a not too unusual finding during this year’s honey harvest, completely empty frames. This year’s interrupted brood cycles left fewer bees on hand to produce honey. The beekeeper’s task this year will be to keep the bees alive and healthy. There won’t be a great surplus of honey to harvest this year.
--Richard

Summer Hive Inspection

In the summertime, hive inspections are made less frequently. Because the honey supers are placed atop the hive bodies, it may mean moving hundreds of pounds of equipment just to get to the brood nest. By August, the hives have between two and six medium-size honey supers in place. Each super may weigh up to sixty pounds. The heat and humidity in the Delta are true limiting factors in the beekeeping task. Still, there are times when it is necessary to look into the brood nest and evaluate the hive. If there are dead bees on the ground in front of the hive or a lower than normal population of bees inside the hive, a thorough inspection hive is made. This year’s excessive number of rainy days made for some sporadic nectar flows. Some nectar producing plants just didn’t produce nectar during their bloom period simply because the cloud cover reduced photosynthesis. During these times of dearth, some bees, particularly those of Eastern European lineage, revert to survival instincts and stop brood production. These cool-climate races of bees survive during long winters and nectar dearth by stopping brood production, which consumes large amounts of food.

Click on the photo, taken in the brood nest of a hive showing a low population of bees in the honey supers. There are plenty of bees in the brood nest area. All three castes of bees can be found: workers, drones, and the queen. A drone is in the upper, right quadrant; the queen, marked in green, is to the left of center. Capped brood, holding pupae, is present; but there are no eggs or open larvae to be found. It appears that the queen has not been laying eggs for at least nine days. This colony should survive. With a strong nectar flow from fall wildflowers, or my supplemental feeding of sugar syrup, the queen should start laying eggs again and replenish the colony population. This year’s honey crop will be diminished, though.
--Richard

Bees Build Burr Comb

Honey bees build their nest in an orderly fashion. The cavity space is occupied by honey comb built to fill the available space. Sometimes the comb is in straight, parallel sheets. At other times, the comb is placed in globs, or bumps, or in connecting sheets perpendicular to the main sheets. Honey bees will typically build 10 to 15 percent of their nest into these irregular structures, called burr comb. It is in the burr comb that the bees prefer to produce their drones. Worker brood comb and honey storage comb measures five cells per inch. Drone brood comb measures four cells per inch. Anytime that honey comb is damaged in the hive, the bees build new comb in the larger drone cell size. In the picture, Shirley Murphy photographed a piece of burr comb that was damaged during removal of a frame. The damage exposed drone pupae developing in the cells.

At Peace Bee Farm we place one frame of drone brood foundation in each hive body to give the bees a guide toward building 10 percent of their brood nest in drone comb. The drone brood comb is used in several functions as part of our integrated pest management program. Parasitic mites can be counted in the drone brood, and mites can be eliminated by freezing the frames of drone brood. Unwanted genetic behavioral traits, like excessive defensiveness, can be reduced as well by freezing the drone brood. Also, we can concentrate our best genes by using the frames of drone brood for drone bee saturation. A side benefit of using drone brood foundation is a cleaner hive. Since the bees have 10 percent of their drone need accomplished, they don’t build much burr comb in the hive. Burr comb does not always look good to us, but to the bees it is an important part of their nest.
--Richard

Martins and Drones

At Peace Bee Farm, we enjoy the purple martins for half of the year. These largest of the swallows arrive in February, nest in artificial gourds that we provide for them, rear young birds, and then leave without fanfare in July. During the six months that they occupy the farm, they entertain us daily with their song, which is almost speech, and their flight, which some describe as aerial acrobatics. Anyone who has observed these popular birds knows their ability to climb, dive, and soar can’t be matched by other birds. They can regularly be seen sweeping along the surface of lakes or soaring hundreds of feet in the air, catching insects in flight. When they approach their nest, they dive at great speed. It is not uncommon for us to see drone honey bees chasing the martins as the birds circle their nesting gourds or sweep in for a landing. Sometimes a single drone follows a martin; at times half a dozen drones will be in close pursuit. The drones, which normally pursue queen bees in their mating flights, have no trouble keeping up with the rapid, turning flight of the martins. Click on the photo and you can see a number of drones that followed the martin all the way back to the perch above their nesting gourds.

The purple martin is an insect eater and a very efficient gatherer of flying insects. It is obvious that our martins frequent the drone concentration areas and bring back drones visually focused on the zooming birds. I don’t know how many drones and queen bees are eaten by these birds along the way, but I do feel that the birds are doing their part to eliminate weak drones and queens from the mating areas. If this is the case, the martins are helping select for stronger honey bees. The martins will spend the next six months in the Amazon River basin. I wonder if their other home is a similar bee farm in the Southern Hemisphere.
--Richard

A Drone Laying Queen

For a queen bee to be worthwhile to the colony, at least three things must have come into play: She must have come from good genetic stock; she must have received adequate nutrition throughout her development, and she must have been mated with a number of healthy drones. If a queen does not lay a large number of eggs, she will not be able to sustain the colony’s population. If the colony recognizes that the queen is weak, it will replace her in a procedure called supersedure. In supersedure, the colony raises a new queen which takes over the egg laying after killing the old queen. If the colony does not recognize that their queen is not laying enough eggs, the colony may weaken and die. Generally, queens that lay a large number of eggs each day produce large amounts of pheromones which provide the organization of the colony.

As we examine the nucleus hives containing the new queens, we are constantly looking for indications of the quality of the queens. In the picture we see a queen who looks large and healthy; however, her brood pattern is very poor. There is a random, spotty pattern of brood with drone cells surrounded by empty cells. The queen is the bee in the lower center with a wasp-like abdomen and a dark, shiny thorax. I suspect that this queen reached the point following its emergence as an adult at which it would normally make mating flights only to find the daily rains prohibiting flight. Queens which don’t make the mating flights lack sperm and cannot lay the fertile eggs necessary to produce workers or queens. They produce drones from infertile eggs. Drones alone cannot sustain a colony. This queen will have to be replaced.
--Richard

Evaluating New Queen Bees

As social insects, honey bees share the responsibility for the reproduction of the entire colony with two types of bees, queens and drones. Each colony has one queen, and she lays all of the eggs for the entire colony. The success and condition of the entire colony is largely dependent upon the condition of the queen. Reproduction in honey bees is accomplished by the queen, a female, mating with a number of male bees, drones. Typically, the queen will mate a few days after she emerges as an adult bee. The event is a series of flights in which she mates in the air with between 12 and 20 drones.

There are a number of factors that determine the quality of the queen. The success of the mating flight is one. The genetic make-up of the queen is another. A third is the nutrition that the queen received throughout her development and after her emergence as an adult. Each of these factors combines to determine the condition of the brood that the queen produces. Another factor affecting the brood production is the genetics of the several drones that mated with the queen. Whenever we examine the nucleus hives housing the new queens, we are evaluating her condition. We look for behavioral conditions like gentleness, how rapidly the queen produces brood, and the bees’ resistance to diseases and pests. Much can be told about the condition of the queen by examining the brood pattern. Click on the photo to see an excellent brood pattern of capped brood. This is a large area of continuous brood with very few empty cells. The capped cells contain the third stage of the developing honey bees, the pupa.
--Richard

Bees Produce a New Queen

Honey bees are social insects. Each honey bee colony has a single queen bee. She is of utmost importance to the colony, as she lays all of the colony’s eggs. The loss of the queen can lead to the loss of the entire colony. To be prepared to replace her if necessary, the colony regularly produces new queens. If the new queens are not needed, the colony kills them. In the photo we can see two queen cells that the colony has produced. They are the elongated structures on the left side of the picture. Queen cells hang down vertically from the combs, while worker and drone cells are aligned horizontally. The photo actually shows all three types of cells. There is a drone cell, shaped like a bullet, on the edge of the lower queen cell. The remaining capped cells all contain developing worker bees.

In the photo we can also see workers with their heads in empty cells in the brood pattern. These bees are cleaning out the cells which were opened to remove bees developing with parasitic mites. Removing the mites in this manner is a genetic trait, called hygienic behavior, which beekeepers try to pass along to other colonies. They do this by grafting larvae from this colony’s queen or moving one of these queen cells to another hive. This is a healthy colony of honey bees.
--Richard

Bee Hive Inspection

A springtime inspection of the bee hives reveals strong colonies with bees boiling over the top bars of the frames. While the late winter inspections found only a few frames covered with bees, now most hives have bees covering every frame. This is just what the beekeeper wants to see. Whether the hive is being managed for pollination service or honey production, a large population of bees is needed at this time of the year. It is actually quite a balancing act for the beekeeper to encourage the build-up of the bee population to great strength without causing overcrowding leading to swarming. Once the colony swarms, there is little chance of producing enough bees for commercial pollination purposes or for producing a surplus of honey that may be harvested.

In the picture we see the queen bee marked by red paint on her thorax. The paint helps the beekeeper identify the queen. I mark all of my queens and keep records on each ones performance. Click on the photo and you can see each stage of honey bee development. Above the queen there are eggs. To her right are c-shaped larvae in various stages of development. To the right of the larvae are the capped cells of the pupae, and further to the right are the empty cells where the adult bees have just emerged. Most of the bees in the picture are workers; the large bee to the right of the queen is a drone. This inspection revealed a most favorable bee hive.
--Richard

Honey Bees Build Up for Spring

As we approach the beginning of spring, the honey bees are rapidly expanding their colonies. While the bees huddled together in a small cluster over the winter with very little egg laying, they are now expanding their colony. The strong queen is now laying fifteen hundred or more eggs per day. When we open the hive the bees not only cover the frames, but they also spill over onto the tops of the frames. The majority of the bees that we see here are workers, but drones are starting to be seen in the hive as well. One large, dark-colored drone can be seen just to the left of the center of the picture.

The honey bees’ natural tendency is to expand the colony’s population at this time and then split the colony into two. This colony-wide propagation is called swarming. It is the way that the bees seek out new nesting areas and expand their range. With the approach of spring, the large bee population is a welcomed sight for the beekeeper. It takes a large population of bees to take advantage of the spring flowers soon to burst into bloom.
--Richard

Drones Appear on the Combs

As spring nears, the bees are continuing their preparations for the change of seasons. While inspecting hives this week, we find drone honey bees moving about the combs. The drones are the only male honey bees. Having a boxy appearance, they are larger than the workers. Their eyes, which seem to meet in the center, are considerably larger than those of the workers. The drones have no sting. While a honey bee colony will annually produce many thousands of workers, it will only produce several hundred drones.

The way we understand drones, their sole purpose in the honey bee colony is to mate with queen bees in flight. The drones thus accomplish a necessary role in reproduction of bees within the hive as well as propagation of colonies through swarming. Drones are found in the hive from spring through fall. Typically, they leave the hive each afternoon seeking a queen in an area of the sky known as a drone concentration area. With the presence of drones in the hives, it won’t be too long before beekeepers set up queen-mating nucleus hives to accommodate new queen bees. The presence of drones in the hive is a true sign of spring approaching.
--Richard