This document summarizes information about honey bees, including their social structure and behaviors. It notes that honey bee colonies each have one queen whose role is to lay eggs, drones whose role is to fertilize eggs, and worker bees who perform most colony tasks. The document also describes the waggle dance honey bees perform to communicate food locations to one another and lessons humans can learn from honey bees, such as living within their means and achieving things through cooperation.
4. ? Any of several social bees of the genus
Apis that produce honey and are native to
Eurasia and
Africa, especially A. mellifera, widely
domesticated as a source of honey and bees
wax and often kept in hives.
6. "AND YOUR LORD TAUGHT THE HONEY BEE TO BUILD ITS CELLS IN HILLS, ON
TREES, AND IN (MEN'S) HABITATIONS; THEN TO EAT OF ALL THE PRODUCE (OF
THE EARTH), AND FIND WITH SKILL THE SPACIOUS PATHS OF ITS LORD: THERE
ISSUES FROM WITHIN THEIR BODIES A DRINK OF VARYING COLOURS, WHEREIN IS
HEALING FOR MEN: VERILY IN THIS IS A SIGN FOR THOSE WHO GIVE THOUGHT.
(SURAT AN-NAHL (THE BEE), 68-69)
7. ? If the bees disappear from the
surface of the earth, man
would have no more than 4
years to live.
~ Albert Einstein.
? It takes a bee to get the honey
out.
~ Arthur Guiterman
12. Queen
? Each colony has only one queen honey bee
? Her primary function is to lay eggs
? One queen may produce 250,000 eggs per year
? She is easily distinguished from other members of
colony
? she has neither pollen baskets nor functional wax
glands
13. drone
? Drones are male bees and are largest bees in
the colony
? Drones have no stinger, pollen baskets, or
wax glands
? Their main function is to fertilize eggs
? Drones eat three times as much food as
workers
? Drones have never been observed taking food
from flowers.
14. workers
? Workers are the smallest and constitute the
majority of bees occupying the colony.
? They are undeveloped females and under normal
hive conditions do not lay eggs.
? They have brood food glands, scent glands, wax
glands, and pollen baskets.
? They make nests with wax and bring nectar.
? Only worker bee sting.
16. A honey bee performs a
carefully choreographed
dance that instructs the rest
of the hive where to find a
food source.
17. Round dance
Honey bee performs a
round dance to
communicate the
location of food
sources close to the
colony (less than 35
yards away).
18. The Waggle Dance
? As the food source becomes
more distant the round dance
is replaced by the waggle
dance.
? There is a gradual transition
between the round and
waggle dance, taking place
through either a figure eight
or sickle shaped pattern.
21. ? Honey bees live within their means.
? Honey bees achieve extra-ordinary
things by working together.
? Honey bees demonstrate that
division of labour can be highly
efficient.
? Bees are opportunists.
? Ego is not a feature of honey bees.
22. ? Honeybees share: they know
there is plenty for everyone,
including other species.
? Honey bees adapt to their
surroundings.
? They are always prepared for
shortages as well as for
disasters and hard times.
23. Hard work of honey bees
? It is estimated that for every pound of
honey, around 25,000 flights must be
made to make collect necessary nectar.
They also must visit around 2 million
flowers to make that pound of honey and
fly 55,000 miles.
? After such a great hard work they make
honey.
24. Excerpt from a poem by
Isaac Watts
? How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every shining flower!
How skillfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.
25. If we humans do such a great
hard work we will get reward
as sweet as honey¡