Unfortunately, in the modern world, circumstances often develop in such a way that we stop paying attention to the nature around us. Coming somewhere (say, to Africa or Australia), we are amazed at the diversity of local flora and fauna, but in our own state we do not notice any plants, birds, or animals. But in vain. Take, for example, such an amazing insect as a bee. Interesting facts about her cannot fail to attract the attention of even the most uninquisitive.
This article aims to interest the reader by telling him in a simple and understandable language about the nuances well-known only in narrow circles. they feed in warm and cold seasons, how they breed and build their homes.
Section 1. Characteristic features of insects
Bees, interesting facts about which have literally flooded the media lately, have membranous wings, short andoutstretched belly.
The body of males is sometimes densely pubescent, and they have straight antennae, but in females they are articulated, consisting of 12-13 segments. The eyes are naked, sometimes covered with cilia, the mouthparts are of a gnawing type.
All bees have a proboscis and an expanded first segment of the hind legs - key elements for collecting pollen from flowers and nectar. The latter, by the way, is collected by the bees with a sucking proboscis in the goiter with a valve that blocks the access of nectar to the gastric tract. The abdomen is often covered with hairs. On the hind legs there is a "basket" - especially for collecting pollen. By the way, not everyone knows that only females have a sting.
Section 2. Hierarchy of bees
These insects are quite highly organized insects: they look for food, water, equip housing, honeycombs, take care of the uterus and offspring by joint efforts and together protect themselves from enemies. That is why bee breeding usually does not require as much effort as it might seem at first glance.
The most advanced social formations of this species are eusocial colonies, where honey bees, the so-called stingless bees, and bumblebees live together. If we consider that they have a clearly defined division of labor, then this group may well be called semi-social.
In the case when, in addition to all of the above, the swarm consists of a queen and her offspring, females, the group is called public. In this structure, the mother bee is usually called the queen, and her daughters are called workers.
Section 3. How long does a bee live?
The lifespan of these insects directly depends on the overall strength of the family. In a weak group, a worker bee can live in the spring for about 4 weeks, in a strong group - 5-7 weeks. And it all depends on the total size of the family, as well as the egg production of the uterus.
However, not everyone knows that bees can regulate their lifespan. Most likely, they have some secret of body renewal if there is no opportunity to grow a new generation of bees. For example, if a family suddenly lost a uterus, then their lifespan could increase to 200 days or more.
Also lengthens the life of most worker bees at the time when the colony decided to swarm or prepare for wintering. Overwintered insects live for about 7 months and work for the benefit of their colony for about 1 month. That is, winter individuals live 5-7 times longer than summer ones. Thus, the summer life of a bee averages a little more than a month, and the winter life is about 200 days.
Section 4. What does bee nectar consist of and how is it formed?
A bee scoops up a drop of flower nectar secreted by plants (weighing 40-50 mg) and enriches it with its saliva, which contains a lot of enzymes. In addition, the process of splitting sucrose occurs in her goiter, as a result of which the nectar becomes honey.
After returning to the hive, the forager bee passes a drop of nectar to the bee-receiver, which continues biochemical processing, and then puts the nectar into the cells of the combs, where it alsosubjected to chemical treatment - "ripening".
At this time, intense evaporation of water, sedimentation of tannins, etc. The maintenance of bees during this period requires special attention and care.
Section 5. Worker
It's hard to imagine that to get just one spoonful of honey for a whole day, 200 worker bees will have to actively collect nectar. But that's not all. Approximately the same number of individuals should be engaged in the reception of nectar, its further processing in the hive. Plus, some of the bees ventilate the nest for faster evaporation of excess water from the brought product.
And in order to seal honey in 75 bee cells, workers need to allocate 1 gram of wax. To create 1 kg of honey, bees must make about 4,500 sorties, collect nectar from 10 million flowering plants.
In principle, a strong family can collect 5-10 kg of honey per day or 10-20 kg of nectar. These insects are able to fly 8 km from their hive in search of such prey.
What a bee loves is hard to guess. These insects are able to collect nectar from completely different flowering plants. That is why some apiary owners choose to take their beehives out to collect honey from a certain type of plant, such as acacia, rapeseed or linden.
Section 6. Characteristic features of these honey insects
It would seem, well, what could be unusual in such a fairly common insect as a bee? Interesting Facts,however, they show quite the opposite. Despite the fact that in the warm season we can observe them quite often, not everyone knows how they live and how their painstaking work is organized.
Of course, professional keeping of bees requires special skills, but the average person will be curious to know that honey plant colonies are pronounced social colonies, where each individual performs its function, determined by its biological age.
So, young insects (up to 10 days old) appear to feed the queen and larvae. From about 7 days of age, special wax glands begin to work on the lower abdomen of the builder bees, so they switch to various construction work in the nest.
By 14-15 days, the bee, interesting facts about which cannot but arouse curiosity, loses productivity, the productivity of wax glands drops sharply, and insects begin to engage in other activities related to caring for the nest - cleaning cells and taking out garbage.
When the bees are 20 days old, they provide ventilation and protection of the nest. Individuals older than 22 days are engaged in honey collection. And those over 30 days old are responsible for collecting water for family needs.
By the way, adult bees stay in the hive in winter, and for this period their life seems to freeze, but insects do not die, as is commonly believed.
Section 7. How to recognize the killer?
An insect like a bee, interesting facts aboutwhich at first glance, as a rule, seem very unlikely, can pose a mortal danger to a person. And now we are not talking about the poor fellows with allergies, a simple bite in which causes a terrible reaction of the body, and even suffocation. Everyone and us can become a victim, however, for this you need to go to South America.
Not everyone knows that killer bees are honey bee hybrids. They are more aggressive, can attack humans, pets, sting very seriously.
According to statistics, more than 200 people have died in Brazil since 1969, and several thousand people have been seriously injured by killer bee stings. These individuals attack 30 times faster and sting 10 times more often than regular honeybees.
At the slightest alarm, they swarm anyone who appears within a 5m radius of their hive and can chase the prey for about 1.5km. And if you consider that a bee of this kind loves shady places, for example, parks, squares or forests, it turns out that you can easily meet it on a walk.
Recently in the foreign press there was information that all over America these insects killed about a thousand people. Horrible death is usually due to anaphylactic shock.
