The Queen Bee Makes a Mating Flight

The queen bee is responsible for producing all of the eggs for the honey bee colony. Unlike organisms that mate again and again for the production of each offspring, the queen honey bee mates but once for a lifetime of egg laying. This occurs in a series of mating flights which typically occur over a day or two about five or six days after the queen’s emergence as an adult. During these flights, the queen bee will mate in the air with between twelve and twenty drone bees. She will store the sperm from these flights in an internal organ for the length of her life. This sperm will be used to produce fertile eggs to produce either workers or queen bees. She also lays non-fertile eggs to produce drones. By mating with a number of drones, the queen is assured of bringing genetic diversity to the colony’s offspring. Some of those diverse genes may be just the ones needed for the colony to survive in a changing environment.

I happened to be checking the queen mating nucleus hives on the day that a number of young queens were making mating flights. It appeared that the queen from this colony was outside the hive at the time I was checking it. I found no queen in the hive. The bees on every frame appeared to be fanning air with their wings across their raised abdomens. This is done to blow a plume of pheromones out through the air to guide bees to the hive. In this case all of the bees were involved in guiding their queen back home. Click on the photo and see the bees at the top of the hive’s frames posed to fan pheromones. While the bees look disturbed and disorganized, they were actually quite calm. The fanning by the bees shows the importance to the entire colony for the success of the mating flight. I feel like this is the most unique photo that I have taken inside a bee hive.
--Richard

We Meet Friends at the Farmers Market

While farmers markets have been around as long as there has been agriculture and civilization, we are seeing a great resurgence in these markets throughout the country today. The markets are seen as much as a civic meeting place as a place to buy fresh farm produce. The markets are designed to bring people together, to provide fresh and healthful food, to provide a market for local farmers and artisans, to encourage community awareness, and to make educational opportunities. The Memphis Farmers Market is doing all of those things every Saturday in downtown Memphis. Hundreds of people visit the market in a revitalized neighborhood encompassing Main Street, Front Street, and residences near the Mississippi River. They find fresh vegetables, friends, a hot cup of coffee, and live music.

We meet many of our friends regularly at the farmers market. Here, on the left, is Carolyn Dodson-King of Dodson Farms of Forrest City, Arkansas. Carolyn is an artisan; her parents are produce farmers. Today they brought in Arkansas sweet potatoes. In the center is Melissa Peterson, the editor of Edible Memphis magazine. She is carrying a bag of fresh green vegetables that she gathered at the market. Melissa is an enthusiastic friend who has done much to bring together farmers, artisans, chefs, restaurants, and citizens who appreciate good food. You can find her carefully designed quarterly magazine about harvest in the Mid-South at ediblememphis.com. On the right is Rita Underhill, co-owner of Peace Bee Farm. A light rain held no chance of dampening spirits this day.
--Richard

Multiflora Rose in Bloom

One of the great plants for attracting wildlife in the countryside is multiflora rose. At one of our bee yards that is surrounded by thickets of multiflora rose, we can regularly hear quail make their “bob-white” call. The small flowers of this rose are open and easily accessed by honey bees. As they enter the flower to collect nectar or pollen, they inadvertently carry grains of pollen from the anther to the stigma of flowers, accomplishing pollination. Once the rose flower has been pollinated, its reproductive parts in the center rapidly change color from yellow to brown. Seed is produced to reproduce the plant as well as to feed wildlife.

Of course, the multiflora rose is a member of the rose family which includes many fruiting trees: apples, plums, and pears. The almond tree is a rose, as are vines like raspberry and blackberry. The members of the rose family are considered to be important bee plants, as they produce considerable amounts of nectar and pollen. This photo of a honey bee foraging in multiflora rose was taken by photographer and beekeeper, Brandon Dill. It’s always a pleasure to have Brandon along when working with the bees. On a day threatening spring thunderstorms, we gathered a swarm, checked on some new queens, and got in some photography. You can view more of Brandon’s work at brandondillphotography.com.
--Richard

New Queen Bees Emerge

We raise new queen bees in small hives called queen mating nucleus hives. These hives house the bees necessary to care for a new queen bee until she is able to lay enough eggs to sustain an entire colony. The bees in this hive maintain a temperature in the brood area where the queen cell is located at about 95 degrees. Once the queen has emerged from her queen cell, the nurse bees and attendant bees will continuously feed and tend to her. After a few days the new queen will make her mating flights from this hive. A significant step in the raising of new queen bees is checking to see if the queen successfully emerged from her queen cell. In the photo we can see two queen cells in which the queen successfully chewed her way out of the end of the cells. The cells were started with a larva grafted into the plastic queen cell cups. The bees in a starter colony drew out the beeswax cells in the shape of peanuts. The peanut-shaped cells were held in the queen mating nucleus hive in the orange-colored protectors.

The generally shy and reclusive queen will remain in the hive for about five days after emerging as an adult bee from the queen cell. During this time she will seek out any other queens or queen cells and kill them. Next, she will make one or more mating flights in which she breeds with a number of drone bees. The queen must then find her way back to the correct hive. She should be ready to start laying eggs after a few days. Once the queen is laying eggs, this nucleus hive will become the start of a new colony of honey bees.
--Richard

Vetch in Bloom

From March through August many roadsides, unplowed fields, and open idle lands are covered by a fast-growing, thick, knee-high vine covered with reddish-purple flowers. The vine is vetch, a member of one of the important bee plant families, the legumes. Other legumes include the clovers, beans, peas, peanuts, soybeans, locust trees, redbud, and mimosa. The long tassels of Vetch flowers are worked readily by honeybees. With such a long blossom it is not uncommon for honey bees to reach the nectar from the back or side of the flower. For such flowers with long blossoms, the honey bees often rely on leaf cutter bees to chew a hole in the base of the flower to expose the nectar. Vetch also has a well-developed nectary outside the flower that becomes functional about two weeks before the flowers open. Vetch honey is similar in color to clover honey, but it has a somewhat stronger flavor.

While Vetch may be a true friend to the beekeeper, here in the Arkansas Delta it is often considered a weed to grain farmers and to those who tend to the highways. The seed of Vetch is a pea the same size as a grain of wheat. This makes vetch seed very difficult to mechanically remove from wheat. Vetch grows so rapidly and makes such a thick mass of vegetation that it is difficult to mow from highway shoulders. Like many legumes, vetch helps return nitrogen to the soil. In this capacity it makes a useful cover crop for idle lands.
--Richard

Moving Bees at Night

Honey bees have senses that are capable of detecting their surroundings very accurately. They can detect sights, colors, odors, vibrations, and even magnetism. They also have a mechanism for telling time. They use this time sense for navigating back to the hive and for foraging for plants that bloom only during part of the day. Their eyesight helps them find the flowers that they forage upon by detecting landmarks in the terrain and the colors and shapes of flowers. They can particularly determine the pattern of interruptions created by the shapes of flower petals. Honey bees can see most of the colors that humans can see with the exception of the color red. However, the honey bee can see ultraviolet, a color that humans cannot detect. The honey bee can use ultraviolet light to navigate while flying on an overcast day. They follow ultraviolet “nectar guides,” patterns in flowers directing the bees to the nectar. Bees don’t seem to have any problem in adjusting from the dark interior of their hive to the bright sunlight of a mid-day foraging flight.

Honey bees do not fly at night; they conduct their flight activities during the daylight. Beekeepers usually move bees at night, as this is the time when most of the bees are in the hive. I moved one of our bee yards, a few hives at a time over a number of evenings. In the picture, you can see one of the open hives. The picture is illuminated by a red flashlight. When working with bees at night, we use a red-colored flashlight. This color of light does not excite the bees like a white light. They seem to not even notice the red light. Oh, by the way, honey bees have five eyes, two compound eyes and three small eyes on the top of their heads.

--Richard

Raising Queen Bees

Every honey bee colony has a queen bee. For the beekeeper to expand the bee yard or to have extra queens for requeening colonies, new queens must be raised. We can assist the bees in the production of queens, but only the bees can produce a queen. They do it by feeding a special food, called royal jelly, to the developing brood on the fourth day of development. This is the day that the egg becomes a larva. Fertile eggs will develop into worker bees if fed a normal diet, but they will develop into queens if continually fed royal jelly. Beekeepers start this process of queen development into motion by moving these young larvae into hives of bees set-up to feed and care for the larvae. The method of moving the larvae is called grafting. The bees build queen cells around the developing queen larvae.

The queen cells are next moved to queen mating nucleus hives like the one in the picture. Here, the queen cell is cared for by the bees. They will also feed and tend to the new queen once she emerges as an adult. She will make her mating flight from this hive. To help her find her own hive, we paint each mating nucleus hive a different color. A screen barrier outside the hive’s entrance helps prevent robber bees from entering. This process of setting up queen cells in mating nucleus hives mimics the procedures that bees regularly perform in nature.
--Richard