why  Is  The  Honey  Bee  so  Important ?

The pollination of crops by bees is responsible for a third of the food produced in the US.

What does that mean for you and me?

  Without bees, food gets more expensive - some products could disappear altogether. There will be less beautiful flowers, and of course less of that delicious honey that I love so much. 

 At Doug the Bug inc. we do everything we can to save our bees.



As you can see from this picture above the the honeybee can carry a large amount of pollen from plant to plant.

Pollination is the movement of male pollen to the female part of the flower (stigma),
the first step in successful seed and fruit production by the plant.  Cross-pollination is the transfer of pollen from one plant to the stigma of another plant. Once the plant has been pollinated, the male contribution fuses with the egg in the ovary, the process known as fertilization. After fertilization, the fruit and seeds develop and mature.


The honeybee actually visits flowers to get food. As the bee moves from flower to flower getting food, the plant benefits in being able to produce fruits, with seeds that can grow into new plants. Bees collect the pollen from flowers and take it back to the hive where it is stored until it is used to feed the bees in the hive.Larva are fed lots of pollen, because they need the protein to grow.

 

With their tongues, the field bees suck out the nectar and store it in sacs within their bodies. After filling their sacs with these sweet juices, the field bees fly back to their bee hive and regurgitate the stored nectar into the mouths of house bees.           

                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                      
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Why does a bee die when it stings?
Essentially, the bee loses its internals when it stings. The barbs in the sting firmly stick into the victim, pulling out the venom sacs and glands when the bee is shaken off.



           

                                                                                               

                     Stinger below and above are on the same
 notice the length of the stinger inserted into body,
ouch!

                                                                                                                  



Above, this is a huge hive we came across in Clearwater.

The Queen Bee


Although the name might imply it, a queen does not directly control the hive. Her sole function is to serve as the reproducer. A well-mated and well-fed queen of quality stock can lay about 2,000 eggs per day during the spring build-up — more than her own bodyweight in eggs every day.


During the egg-laying process, the queen decides whether to lay a fertilized (female) egg or an unfertilized (male) egg based on the width of the cell. Drones are raised in cells which are significantly larger than the cells used for workers. The queen fertilizes the egg by selectively releasing sperm from her spermatheca as the egg passes through her oviduct.



In the summer there can be about 40,000 bees in a hive. This number drops to around 5,000 in the winter, in Florida the drop is probably not that large in number



Once Bees have taken the nectar back to the hive they mix it with enzymes from glands in their mouths. This nectar/enzyme mix is stored in hexagonal wax honeycomb until the water content has been reduced to around 17%. When this level is reached, the cell is capped over with a thin layer of wax to seal it until the bees need it. This capping indicates to the beekeeper that the honey can be harvested. Capped honey can keep almost indefinitely. 


These house bees are assigned the job of adding enzymes from their bodies to the nectar. The enzymes cause the water in the nectar to evaporate-thereby turning the nectar into honey. Lastly, the nectar is stored in a cell of a honeycomb. Overtime, the nectar ripens and becomes honey.