Greetings, This
is a photo that I was blessed to capture several years ago one cold morning when
I was out with the family driving around our ranch to check on our livestock. It
is a swarm of honey bees that are all clumped up together to stay warm, AKA a
"winter cluster". The bees were very lethargic because it was so cold
so I was able to get fairly close up to them without them stirring. I hope that
you will enjoy the information that I have collected to go with this post as
well.
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prints or view the photo In a larger format click on the photo. If you would
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Honey bees
(or honeybees) are a subset of bees in the genus Apis, primarily distinguished
by the production and storage of honey and the construction of perennial,
colonial nests out of wax. Honey bees are the only extant members of the tribe
Apini, all in the genus Apis. Currently, there are only seven recognised
species of honey bee with a total of 44 subspecies,though historically,
anywhere from six to eleven species have been recognised. Honey bees represent
only a small fraction of the approximately 20,000 known species of bees. Some
other types of related bees produce and store honey, but only members of the
genus Apis are true honey bees.
Orgin and
distribution Honey bees as a group appear to have their centre of origin
in South and South East Asia (including the Philippines), as all but one (i.e.
Apis mellifera), of the extant species are native to that region. Notably the
most plesiomorphic living species (Apis florea and Apis andreniformis) has the
center of origin there.
They say the first
Apis bees appear in the fossil record at the Eocene–Oligocene (23-56 Mya)
boundary, in European deposits. The origin of these prehistoric honey bees does
not necessarily indicate that Europe is where the genus originated, only that
it occurred there at that time. There are few known fossil deposits in South
Asia, the suspected region of honey bee origin, and fewer still have been
thoroughly studied.
No Apis species
existed in New World in In Ancient history before introduction of Apis melifera
by Europeans. There is only one fossil species documented, Apis nearctica,
known from a single 14-million-year old (so they say) specimen from Nevada.
The close relatives of modern honey bees –- e.g. bumblebees
and stingless bees –- are also social to some degree, and social behavior seems
a plesiomorphic trait that predates the origin of the genus. Among the extant
members of Apis, the more basal species make single, exposed combs, while the
more recently evolved species nest in cavities and have multiple combs, which
has greatly facilitated their domestication.
Most species have
historically been cultured or at least exploited for honey and beeswax by
humans indigenous to their native ranges. Only two of these species have been
truly domesticated, one (Apis mellifera) at least since the time of the
building of the Egyptian pyramids, and only that species has been moved extensively
beyond its native range. Today's honey bees constitute three clades.
Apis
Eastern species Eastern honey
bee (Apis cerana) from Hong Kong
These are three or four species. The reddish Koschevnikov's
bee (Apis koschevnikovi) from Borneo is well distinct; it probably derives from
the first colonization of the island by cave-nesting honey bees. Apis cerana,
the Eastern honey bee proper, is the traditional honey bee of southern and
eastern Asia, kept in hives in a similar fashion to Apis mellifera, though on a
much smaller and regionalised scale. It has not been possible yet to resolve
its relationship to the Bornean Apis cerana nuluensis and Apis nigrocincta from
the Philippines to satisfaction; the most recent hypothesis is that these are
indeed distinct species but that A. cerana is still paraphyletic, consisting of
several good species.
Apis mellifera, the
most commonly domesticated species, was the third insect to have its genome
mapped. It seems to have originated in eastern tropical Africa and spread from
there to Northern Europe and eastwards into Asia to the Tien Shan range. It is
variously called the European, Western or Common honey bee in different parts
of the world. There are many subspecies that have adapted to the local
geographic and climatic environment, and in addition, hybrid strains such as the
Buckfast bee have been bred. Behavior, color and anatomy can be quite different
from one subspecies or even strain to another.
Regarding phylogeny,
this is the most enigmatic honey bee species. It seems to have diverged from
its Eastern relatives only during the Late Miocene. This would fit the
hypothesis that the ancestral stock of cave-nesting honey bees was separated
into the Western group of E Africa and the Eastern group of tropical Asia by
desertification in the Middle East and adjacent regions, which caused declines
of foodplants and trees which provided nest sites, eventually causing gene flow
to cease. The diversity of subspecies is probably the product of a largely
Early Pleistocene radiation aided by climate and habitat changes during the
last ice age. That the Western honey bee has been intensively managed by humans
since many millennia – including hybridization and introductions – has
apparently increased the speed of its evolution and confounded the DNA sequence
data to a point where little of substance can be said about the exact
relationships of many A. mellifera subspecies.
Transportation
of Bees to the Americas Apis mellifera is not native to the Americas and
therefore were not present upon the arrival of the European explorers and
colonists. There were, however, other native honey bee species kept and traded
by indigenous peoples. In 1622, European colonists brought the dark bee (A. m.
mellifera) to the Americas, followed later by Italian bees (A. m. ligustica)
and others. Many of the crops that depend on honey bees for pollination have
also been imported since colonial times. Escaped swarms (known as "wild"
bees, but actually feral) spread rapidly as far as the Great Plains, usually
preceding the colonists. Honey bees did not naturally cross the Rocky
Mountains; they were transported by the Mormon pioneers to Utah in the late
1840s, and by ship to California in the early 1850s.
Africanized
bee Africanized bees (known colloquially as "killer bees") are
hybrids between European stock and one of the African subspecies A. m.
scutellata; they are often more aggressive than and do not create as much of a
surplus as European bees, but are more resistant to disease and are better
foragers[citation needed]. Originating by accident in Brazil, they have spread
to North America and constitute a pest in some regions. However, these strains
do not overwinter well, and so are not often found in the colder, more northern
parts of North America. On the other hand, the original breeding experiment for
which the African bees were brought to Brazil in the first place has continued
(though not as intended). Novel hybrid strains of domestic and re-domesticated
Africanized bees combine high resilience to tropical conditions and good
yields. They are popular among beekeepers in Brazil.
Beekeeping Two
species of honey bee, A. mellifera and A. cerana indica, are often maintained,
fed, and transported by beekeepers. Modern hives also enable beekeepers to
transport bees, moving from field to field as the crop needs pollinating and
allowing the beekeeper to charge for the pollination services they provide,
revising the historical role of the self-employed beekeeper, and favoring
large-scale commercial operations.
Beekeepers in Western countries have been reporting slow
declines of stocks for many years, apparently due to impaired protein
production, changes in agricultural practice, or unpredictable weather. In
early 2007, abnormally high die-offs (30-70% of hives) of European honey bee
colonies occurred in North America; such a decline seems unprecedented in
recent history. This has been dubbed "Colony collapse disorder"
(CCD); it is unclear whether this is simply an accelerated phase of the general
decline due to stochastically more adverse conditions in 2006, or a novel
phenomenon. Research has so far failed to determine what causes it, but the
weight of evidence is tentatively leaning towards CCD being a syndrome rather
than a disease as it seems to be caused by a combination of various
contributing factors rather than a single pathogen or poison.
Life Cycle As in a few other types of eusocial
bees, a colony generally contains one queen bee, a fertile female; seasonally
up to a few thousand drone bees or fertile males;and a large seasonally
variable population of sterile female worker bees. Details vary among the
different species of honey bees, but common features include:
1. Eggs are laid singly in
a cell in a wax honeycomb, produced and shaped by the worker bees. Using her
spermatheca, the queen actually can choose to fertilize the egg she is laying,
usually depending on what cell she is laying in. Drones develop from
unfertilised eggs and are haploid, while females (queens and worker bees)
develop from fertilised eggs and are diploid. Larvae are initially fed with
royal jelly produced by worker bees, later switching to honey and pollen. The
exception is a larva fed solely on royal jelly, which will develop into a queen
bee. The larva undergoes several moltings before spinning a cocoon within the
cell, and pupating.
2. Young
worker bees clean the hive and feed the larvae. When their royal jelly
producing glands begin to atrophy, they begin building comb cells. They
progress to other within-colony tasks as they become older, such as receiving
nectar and pollen from foragers, and guarding the hive. Later still, a worker
takes her first orientation flights and finally leaves the hive and typically
spends the remainder of her life as a forager.
3. Worker
bees cooperate to find food and use a pattern of "dancing" (known as
the bee dance or waggle dance) to communicate information regarding resources
with each other; this dance varies from species to species, but all living
species of Apis exhibit some form of the behavior. If the resources are very
close to the hive, they may also exhibit a less specific dance commonly known
as the "Round Dance".
4. Honey
bees also perform tremble dances which recruit receiver bees to collect nectar
from returning foragers.
5. Virgin
queens go on mating flights away from their home colony, and mate with multiple
drones before returning. The drones die in the act of mating.
6. Colonies
are established not by solitary queens, as in most bees, but by groups known as
"swarms", which consist of a mated queen and a large contingent of
worker bees. This group moves en masse to a nest site that has been scouted by
worker bees beforehand. Once they arrive, they immediately construct a new wax
comb and begin to raise new worker brood. This type of nest founding is not
seen in any other living bee genus, though there are several groups of Vespid
wasps which also found new nests via swarming (sometimes including multiple
queens). Also, stingless bees will start new nests with large numbers of worker
bees, but the nest is constructed before a queen is escorted to the site, and
this worker force is not a true "swarm".
Winter
survival In cold climates honey bees stop flying when the temperature
drops below about 10 °C (50 °F) and crowd into the central area of the hive to
form a "winter cluster". The worker bees huddle around the queen bee
at the center of the cluster, shivering in order to keep the center between 27
°C (81 °F) at the start of winter (during the broodless period) and 34 °C (93
°F) once the queen resumes laying. The worker bees rotate through the cluster
from the outside to the inside so that no bee gets too cold. The outside edges
of the cluster stay at about 8–9 °C (46–48 °F). The colder the weather is
outside, the more compact the cluster becomes. During winter, they consume
their stored honey to produce body heat. The amount of honey consumed during
the winter is a function of winter length and severity but ranges in temperate
climates from 30 to 100 lbs.
Pollination Species
of Apis are generalist floral visitors, and will pollinate a large variety of
plants, but by no means all plants. Of all the honey bee species, only Apis
mellifera has been used extensively for commercial pollination of crops and
other plants. The value of these pollination services is commonly measured in
the billions of dollars.
Honey Honey is the complex
substance made when the nectar and sweet deposits from plants and trees are
gathered, modified and stored in the honeycomb by honey bees as a food source
for the colony. All living species of Apis have had their honey gathered by indigenous
peoples for consumption, though for commercial purposes only Apis mellifera and
Apis cerana have been exploited to any degree. Honey is sometimes also gathered
by humans from the nests of various stingless bees. In 1911 a bee culturists
estimated that a quart of honey represented bees flying over an estimated
48,000 miles to gather the pollen needed for the nectar to produce the honey.
Honeycombs and Beeswax Worker
bees of a certain age will secrete beeswax from a series of glands on their
abdomens. They use the wax to form the walls and caps of the comb. As with
honey, beeswax is gathered for various purposes.
Pollen Bees collect pollen in
the pollen basket and carry it back to the hive. In the hive, pollen is used as
a protein source necessary during brood-rearing. In certain environments,
excess pollen can be collected from the hives of A. mellifera and A. cerana. It
is often eaten as a health supplement.
Propolis Propolis or bee glue
is created from resins, balsams and tree saps. Those species of honey bees
which nest in tree cavities use propolis to seal cracks in the hive. Dwarf honey
bees use propolis to defend against ants by coating the branch from which their
nest is suspended to create a sticky moat. Propolis is consumed by humans as a
health supplement in various ways and also used in some cosmetics.
Defense All
honey bees live in colonies where the worker bees will sting intruders as a
form of defense, and alarmed bees will release a pheromone that stimulates the
attack response in other bees. The different species of honey bees are
distinguished from all other bee species (and virtually all other Hymenoptera)
by the possession of small barbs on the sting, but these barbs are found only
in the worker bees. The sting and associated venom sac are also modified so as
to pull free of the body once lodged (autotomy), and the sting apparatus has
its own musculature and ganglion which allow it to keep delivering venom once
detached. The worker bee dies after the stinger is torn from its body. Contrast
to common belief, the Honey bee is the only bee that does this. All other bees
live on afterwards. As with other forms of life, warnings are given before an
attack is launched. In the case of some honey bee species in the wild, this
takes the form of a 'Mexican wave' which spreads as a ripple across a layer of
bees densely packed on the surface of a comb when a threat is perceived, and
consists of bees momentarily arching their bodies and flicking their wings.
This complex
apparatus, including the barbs on the stinger, in response to predation by
vertebrates, the barbs do not usually function (and the sting apparatus does
not detach) unless the sting is embedded in fleshy tissue. While the sting can
also penetrate the flexible exoskeletal joints in appendages of other insects
(and is used in fights between queens), in the case of Apis cerana defense
against other insects such as predatory wasps is usually performed by
surrounding the intruder with a mass of defending worker bees, who vibrate
their muscles so vigorously that it raises the temperature of the intruder to a
lethal level. It was previously thought that the heat alone was responsible for
killing intruding wasps, but recent experiments have demonstrated that it is
the increased temperature in combination with increased carbon dioxide levels
within the ball that produces the lethal effect.This phenomenon is also used to
kill a queen perceived as intruding or defective, an action known to beekeepers
as, balling the queen, named for the
ball of bees formed.
Communication
Honey bees are known to communicate through many different chemicals and
odours, as is common in insects, but also using specific behaviours that convey
information about the quality and type of resources in the environment, and
where these resources are located. The details of the signalling being used
vary from species to species; for example, the two smallest species, Apis
andreniformis and Apis florea, dance on the upper surface of the comb, which is
horizontal (not vertical, as in other species), and worker bees orient the
dance in the actual compass direction of the resource to which they are
recruiting.
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