Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
colony may contain many thousands of workers - perhaps 60,000-
80,000 or more in a good colony. Worker bees start off with the potential
to be queens, but diet change causes them to veer from this course and
they fail to develop as queens.
The drone bee is a male bee optimized for mating with a virgin queen
bee. He has no sting and is fed by workers. In times of lack of food,
drones are often ejected from the hive by workers. There are usually a
few hundred in a colony.
A colony of bees requires a cavity in which to live and in which they
construct wax combs for the storage of food (honey and pollen) and for
the rearing of young brood. The cavity or beehive must be well sited in
an area where forage and water are available and where it is protected
from the elements.
The beekeeper's role is to ensure that the bees' living requirements are
met and that they are protected from disease and starvation.
Knowing these requirements and understanding the inhabitants of a colony of honey-
bees, we can now progress to adapting these requirements in the form of easily managed
cavities (hives and other equipment) and to moving the bees more in the direction of
our own choosing (hive and apiary management). It is really that simple. But, first of
all, it is important to know exactly what these wonderful creatures produce and what
they can do for us.
