Bees cannot talk to each other so they communicate through dances, vibrations and body chemical signals. The scout bees have the task of � nding new pollen, nectar and water sources. Once they have sourced these they return to the hive and perform either a round or waggle dance across the honeycomb. To indicate distance exactly, the scout bee uses an audible code of buzzes on a 200 cycle per second note with a pulse rate of 35 to a second.

The round dance is performed when the food source is within a hundred metres of the hive. Wings vibrate swiftly as the bee runs in a circle and then turns and runs the other way. The waggle dance is performed if the source is further away.

The waggle looks roughly like the � gure 8 with a straight centre section. When the food is in the direction of the sun the scout performs the wagtail portions of the dance while moving straight up on the comb. When the food is directly away from the sun the waggle portion is performed as she dances straight down. If the sun is due north of the hive, east and west are indicated by the scout’s dancing to the right or left respectively. The direction danced during the day changes as the sun moves across the sky but performing the waggle portion of the dance straight up always means � y in the current direction of the sun, wherever it may be.

SourcesThe Round DanceSource: Nicholls, C (1998) The Workboot Series: The Story of Producing Honey in Australia. Kondinin Group Inc. p 15.This publication is highly recommended and can be purchased from The Kondinin Group. Contact details are: PO Box 913, Cloverdale WA 6105. Telephone (08) 9478 3343. www.kondinin.com.au.

The Waggle DanceSource: Nicholls, C (1998) The Workboot Series: The Story of Producing Honey in Australia. Kondinin Group Inc. p 15.This publication is highly recommended and can be purchased from The Kondinin Group. Contact details are: PO Box 913, Cloverdale WA 6105. Telephone (08) 9478 3343. www.kondinin.com.au.

How Bees Communicate

The Round Dance

The Waggle Dance

Honeybees belong to the order Hymenoptera, which includes other bees, wasps and ants. Most Hymenoptera have two pairs of clear wings, all have chewing mouthparts. Some, including the honeybee, can suck up liquids. These insects undergo complete metamorphosis, or change in form, during their development. There are four life stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult.

The honeybee begins life as an egg. The queen lays eggs, but only the “worker” eggs are fertilised with the drones’ sperm and develop into females. Queen bees are not hatched as queens; they become so when fed royal jelly, a substance produced by the hypopharyngeal glands of the workers.

Eggs hatch in 72 hours into larvae that are known as grubs. All the grubs are fed royal jelly at � rst, but only the future queens are continued on the diet. When fully grown, the grubs transform into pupae. These pupae develop through a process called metamorphosis into fully grown workers (emerge in 21 days), drones (emerge 3 days after the worker bees) and queens (emerge within 16 days). As there is only one queen for each hive, about a week before the new queen is hatched, the old queen is prepared for leaving the hive. Just before the new queen emerges, the old queen leaves, taking with her at least half the workers and drones.

SourcesThe Growth Stages of a HoneybeeSource: Nicholls, C (1998) The Workboot Series: The Story of Producing Honey in Australia. Kondinin Group Inc. p 12.This publication is highly recommended and can be purchased from The Kondinin Group. Contact details are: PO Box 913, Cloverdale WA 6105. Telephone (08) 9478 3343. www.kondinin.com.au.

The Growth Stages of a Honeybee

How Bees Develop

The hive contains up to 40,000 bees, each having a role in the smooth running of the hive, which is divided into two sections – the honey super on top and the brood chamber, or nursery, underneath.

The honey super contains eight or nine frames on which the bees build honeycomb. The frames can be removed one at a time when the comb is full of honey. The brood chamber also contains honeycomb, but it’s cells are not usually as deep as those in the super because they are used exclusively for egg laying and brood rearing. This is where the queen bee usually lives and lays her eggs. The comb is white when new and becomes yellow as it absorbs pollen during food storage. It tends to darken in the brood chamber after it has been used to raise many generations of honeybees.

Hive temperature is maintained at about 34 degrees C. The bees eat more honey to provide energy to warm themselves in cooler times. In warmer weather, to reduce the temperature of the hive, they bring in water in their honey stomachs and deposit tiny water droplets on the honeycomb, they then fan the moisture o� the honeycomb using their wings. This was perhaps the � rst use of evaporative cooling. Bees zealously guard their hives against intruders, with the older workers doing guard duty at the hive entrance. The main intruders are other insects, including bees from other hives that may be short of honey, and, of course, beekeepers who always wear special protective clothing when removing honey from the hive.

The main defence mechanism is the sting, which is fatal for the bee that delivers it. However, the bees repel ants by a combination of kicking and fanning the air with their wings.

The Beehive

SourcesThe Beehive Diagram Source: Nicholls, C (1998) The Workboot Series: The Story of Producing Honey in Australia. Kondinin Group Inc. p 20.This publication is highly recommended and can be purchased from The Kondinin Group. Contact details are: PO Box 913, Cloverdale WA 6105. Telephone (08) 9478 3343. www.kondinin.com.au.

Honeybees enlist a caste system to accomplish the tasks that ensure survival of the colony. Each member of the community ful� lls a need that serves the group.

The Worker

The workers are female bees who do not normally lay eggs. They are 13-17mm long and they live for about six weeks (during the peak of the season) and perform many tasks throughout their lives. Their � rst task is that of a hive nurse who cleans and caps cells, feeds the drones, queen and brood. Later they store and receive nectar from other workers, pack pollen, build honeycomb and clean the hive. Later in life they become honey ripeners and hive guards, preventing foreign insects from entering the hive.

Finally they become foragers. Foragers search for and collect nectar, pollen and water for the colony. They have a long mouthpiece, called a proboscis, for sipping the nectar and water that nourish the bees in the hive and provide us with honey.

The Queen

The queen is the largest bee and each colony has just one, whose sole purpose is to lay eggs – hence her large abdomen. The queen bee has one mating period in her life. During this time she leaves the hive and mates with seven to 10 drones, usually from other colonies. Over a period of three days the queen will make approximately seven mating � ights. Within a short period of time she will begin to lay her eggs. During this time she is cleaned and fed by the worker bees so she can spend all her time laying eggs.

The queen lives for about two to four years, however, beekeepers like to replace them after a year as they tend to produce more eggs in the � rst year.

Honeybee Social Structure

The Drone

The drones are stingless male bees that are shorter than the queen and twice as heavy as the worker, they also have larger eyes and antennae than the females. These help it succeed in its only task – locating and mating with the queen during � ight.

The drones die instantly after they have mated with a queen. Usually there are only a few hundred drones in a hive and they may be evicted at the beginning of winter when breeding ceases.

SourcesThe Worker Bee DiagramSource: Nicholls, C (1998) The Workboot Series: The Story of Producing Honey in Australia. Kondinin Group Inc. p 11.This publication is highly recommended and can be purchased from The Kondinin Group. Contact details are: PO Box 913, Cloverdale WA 6105. Telephone (08) 9478 3343. www.kondinin.com.au.

The Queen Bee DiagramSource: Nicholls, C (1998) The Workboot Series: The Story of Producing Honey in Australia. Kondinin Group Inc. p 10.This publication is highly recommended and can be purchased from The Kondinin Group. Contact details are: PO Box 913, Cloverdale WA 6105. Telephone (08) 9478 3343. www.kondinin.com.au.

The Drone Bee DiagramSource: Nicholls, C (1998) The Workboot Series: The Story of Producing Honey in Australia. Kondinin Group Inc. p 11.This publication is highly recommended and can be purchased from The Kondinin Group. Contact details are: PO Box 913, Cloverdale WA 6105. Telephone (08) 9478 3343. www.kondinin.com.au.