Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
After three days, the eggshell, or chorion, dissolves and a tiny larva emerges. The larva
lies flat on the floor of the cell and is fed thousands of times a day by house bees. Like
a queen larva, it floats in royal jelly. After three days, however, its diet is changed to
worker jelly.
A foraging honey bee trying to gain entrance to a colony other than her own will be
inspected by attending guards and, if found to be in the wrong place, will be physic-
ally removed. Several guards may join the fray if required. This system is imperfect,
however—if traffic is heavy, a foreign forager laden with nectar or pollen may be al-
lowed inside. The same thing happens when drones are returning from mating flights
in late afternoon.
If there is sufficient room in the hive for nectar storage, the workers continue to
take it from returning foragers. As room becomes scarce, however, the workers become
reluctant to take it. Foragers with average- or less-than-average-quality nectar can be
turned down as the number of bees visiting high-reward flowers increases. The same
goes for pollen collection, which is influenced by the number of young needing to be
fed.
Thus, if there is plenty of storage room and enough house bees available to take the
returned booty, foraging increases.
In fact, more and more foraging-aged bees begin to forage, and more and more receivers
are recruited, leaving fewer house bees to clean and feed the young, as well as fewer
guard bees to watch the hive. All of these factors spur the colony to collect nectar and
pollen at an astonishing rate.
These older house bees also take on other tasks as needed, such as house-cleaning
duties—removing dead bees, dead larvae, and debris, such as grass and leaves. (For
more information, see “Foragers,” on page 69.)
