Kinds of Bees | 10 Broad Sorts of Honey Bee, Life Cycle and Lifespan of a Bee

Kinds of Bees | The Lifespan of a Bee | Different Kinds of Bees | Life Cycle of Honey Bee | Bee Families | Honey Bee Duties | 10 Broad Shorts of Honey Bee | Honey Bee | Africanized Bee | Bumble Bee | Yellow Jackets Ground Bee | Yellow Jackets Bee | Carpenter Bee | Mason Bee | Mining Bee | Sweat Bee | Wasps | Hornets |

10 Broad Sorts of Honey Bee Worldwide.

Different kinds of Bees

We are most acquainted with one family of bees, Apidae, which incorporates honey and bumblebees. Honey bees, of course, produce or make honey; these are social bees that board colonies of fifty thousand to 60,000 workers (female bees), 300 drones (male bees), and typically one queen.

Honey colonies are terribly complicated in terms of behavior and overall function; these bees behave for the survival of the colony, and not for individual survival. They are different than any other insects.

#1. Honey Bees

Honey bees are involved in the pollination of not just honey, but many other vegetables, fruit & crops, and they’re really important to the production of these crops.  Honey bees nest several times with tens of thousands of additional worker bees, gathering honey and bringing it back to honeycombs in their hive.

There are 10 broad sorts of honey bees worldwide, and one hybrid selection, the Apis mellifera, or “killer bee.” The EU honey is most typically unbroken by beekeepers, for the aim of harvesting honey and bee byproducts. But other scholars say, Apis mellifera is the scientific name of the Western honey bee.

Species of bees

This species is used by beekeepers worldwide and is not a hybrid per se. It’s NOT always the so-called killer bee either. This is a colloquial name for a hybrid between an African and a European subspecies (“race”), which spread from Brazil up to the Southern states of the US.

#2. Africanized Bees

A better name, however, would be Africanized bees, as killer bees suggest they attack to kill, what they don’t. There are other SPECIES of honey bees, nine of them living in Asia, and Apis mellifera naturally living in Europe and Africa. The latter has been distributed worldwide for beekeeping. Learn more: Africanized Honey Bee Facts l African Killer Vs European Honey Bee.

#3. Bumblebee

Bumblebees are known to fly around the flowers in your yard and garden in the spring and summertime.  They spend the majority of their time pollinating plants and gathering nectar to make honey.  However, they can’t make anywhere near the amount of honey that honey bees do. 

Although bumblebees are not overly violent bee types, they will sting you if they feel threatened by you.  BumbleBees tend to make their nests in soft, fluffy materials, like old patio furniture cushions, insulation, dried-up leaves, etc. Learn more: Honey Bee Vs Bumble Bee.

Bumblebee came from the name of a humble bee, learn more humble bee. However, bumblebee colonies are a lot smaller than those of honey bees, typically hosting solely some hundred worker bees. Like the honey bee, bumblebees are wonderful pollinators of assorted flowers; their bodies are quite hirsute, stable gear spore simply because the bees move from flower to flower to eat.

And bumblebees neutralize reality create honey, similar in texture and style to honey from honey bees however greenish-golden in tint instead of the pure golden color of normal honey. Bumblebees create comparatively little quantities of honey — their colonies are thus little — and it’s troublesome to reap, thus humblebee honey is typically not found on the market.

#4. Yellow Jackets-Ground Bees

Another type of yellow coat is the floor bee type.  Like their name states, they live in a nest between 2 inches and 2 feet underground, many times in left-handed mole or mouse holes. You need to watch out for these guys, especially once you’re mowing the grass.  They do not like loud mowing sounds and may become angry very easily!

There are however a lot of members of the family Apidae family, solitary instead of colonizing. Digger bees typically create their nests within the soil, rearing their young in soil tunnels; their bodies are bushy, and typically up to three centimeters long.

Digger bees typically nest in shut proximity to every different, giving the looks of a colony, however, every feminine is acting severally, protective, and aggregation spore for her young. These bees are unassertive and can not sting unless they’re seriously disturbed.

#5. Yellow Jackets Bee

Yellowjackets are usually bee types that you can find flying around near your ice cream and lemonade outside during the spring and summer months.  They’re a hassle at barbecues too!  They’re named yellow jackets because of their distinctive yellow and black stripes. 

They nest in a football or teardrop-shaped nest constructed by a grayish paper substance, which is truly made by the bees themselves by chewing little pieces of wood.  Yellowjacket nests are usually found in trees, hanging beneath your deck outside, and sometimes even in the roof of your loft.  If you hear any rustling sound, be sure to get it checked out!

 #5. Carpenter Bees

Carpenter bees, often confused with bumblebees, would be the bee types that chew through the wood in a perfect circle, as a carpenter had really taken a drill and drilled right through.  Within the timber, they nest and lay eggs.  Carpenter bees aren’t known to sting at all. However, the harm they could do to wood is outstanding, so in case you think you have a carpenter bee problem, ensure you get that checked out.

Carpenter bees, on the opposite hand, nest in previous wood; like digger bees, they’re solitary, however, typically nest in shut proximity to every different. Learn more: Carpenter Bees: The Most Effective Way To Getting Rid Of Carpenter Bees! How to Get Rid of Bees: Homemade Carpenter Bees Trap. Learn more: Carpenter Bee Traps | How to Get Rid of Carpenter Bees?

#6. Mason Bees

Leafcutter bees and mason bees are members of the Megachilidae family; they’re solitary, with leafcutters creating nests in hollow plant stems and ready-made holes in wood and mason bees nesting in the previous mortar and varied crevices.

With queen bees, it’s the feminine that mates and rears her young on her own; like social bees, the males serve no purpose apart from to mate with fertile females. Several of those solitary bees are progressively being reared commercially for impregnation functions, particularly as honey bee populations around the world are dwindling for til now unexplained reasons.

#7. Mining bees

Mining bees belong to the family Andrenidae family; this family includes thousands of species around the world. conjointly solitary, mining bees excavate tunnels and cells underground during which to rear their young; their tunnels are typically visible as little mounds within the ground, comparable to worm casts.

A nest could accommodate the main tunnel with 5 or six branches every containing associate ovum. Mining bees like sandy soil. they are doing not cause any injury to a garden and maybe welcome as effective pollinators.

#8. Sweat Bees

Sweat bees are from the Halictidae family. There are actually more than 20,000 bee species worldwide. The most known is the Western honey bee, but all of them are valuable pollinators. “Sweat bees” as a result of they’re attracted by perspiration; females will provide a minor sting if irritated.

These nest within the ground or in wood, and that they are social, tho’ their class structure differs from that of honey or bumblebees. And therefore, the Colletidae family includes skilled worker bees, thus known as-as a result of they swish the walls of their nest cells with secretions that dry into a lining resembling plastic wrap. These are solitary bees found largely in Australia and South America.

Bee Families

Four different bee families — Melittidae, Meganomiidae, Dasypodaidae, and Stenotritidae — are terribly little in a variety of species; these rare are found in Africa or Australia. Bees are far more numerous in sort and behavior than would initially seem. You’re possibly to encounter honey bees and bumblebees, however most all bees are effective pollinators.

#9. Wasps

Wasps are dangerous and pack the most painful punch when it comes to a sting.  These bee types are known for their very thin body center and dangling legs when flying.  They love to nest in attics. However, they nest everywhere, such as shutters, grills, light fixtures, and mailboxes too. Learn more: How Much Does Wasps & Bee Hive Removal Cost?

#10. Hornets

Hornets are certainly the very easily agitated of all the bee types.  Not only will they sting you, but they can also spit venom at you too, which is very painful once they spit it in your eyes!  Hornet’s nest in hives just like those of yellow jackets.

Life Cycle of Honey Bee Diagram.

The history of the honey bee is very ancient. From the cave painting, it has been learned that the habit of honey collection and beekeeping has been going on since the stone age. The honey bee is originated in Europe.

The North American brought about honey bees from there. Honey bees are not as aggressive as men think. There are several species of bees other than honey bees, such as carpenter bees, Yellowjacket bees, Wasp, etc are ferocious.

They do not attack or sting unless they are attacked by an invader. They try first to save their hive and themselves. When they fail, they make a counter-attack. The honey bee has a great history of high socialism. They are more organized than any other insects. They have particular rules for every group. The duties and responsibilities also differ from queen bee to worker bees.

Queen bee can live a few years. The worker or female bees’ life span is very short. They can live only 6 weeks during the busy summer. In winter they live 4-9 months. Male bees or drones may live a few weeks to 3/4 months. But drones who mate with the queen die as the drone’s reproductive organs/genitalia are torn away from their body.

When does honeybee become busier?

During summer honey bee is very busy collecting honey from flowers to flowers. They also make and repair their hives during this time. They collect their food at this time. During winter they are very idle. The foods that they store in a hive during summer, they eat them during winter. They can live long in winter.

The lifespan of a Bee

The common lifespan of bees are as below:

The queen bee eggs hatch into worker-bee-larvae in 3 days, are fed Bee bread for 3 days, and then diet includes pollen and honey for 3 days. They are sealed into their cells for 12 days. During this period they turn shelter and converted to pupae from larvae. They rise as adult bees in 21 days after the eggs were laid.

The lifespan of Worker bees

Workers’ bees are female. They are not sexually developed for generation production. They live 4-9 months in winter, and only 6 weeks in summer. Most bees in a hive are worker bees. In winter there are 20000-30000 worker bees in a hive and 60000-80000 in summer. They have specific chores for an individual. It takes just 21 days from egg to emergence. Each worker bee has only one barbed stinger. It is the reason for their death after stinging. So, they can sting just one time a life.

Queen bee

Just a queen bee is in a hive. She is sexually developed for generation production. Queen bees live for 3-5 years. She does sex on the fly with several male bees. She can lay 1000 eggs per day. The worker bees are born from fertilized eggs and male or drone bees are born from unfertilized eggs. When the queen bee dies or is unable to produce sufficient bees, the worker bees select a young larva as queen. Then they feed it a special diet known as royal jelly. Then it takes only 16 days to take place a queen bee.

Male bee

Male bees are also known as drone bees. They are held in the hive during summer to doing sex with the virgin queen bee. After doing sex one time, most of the drone dies. There may be 300-3000 drones in a hive. They have no stinger. They are useless in winter. The average lifespan of a male bee is about 55 days. Learn more: Why a male bee or drone mate with the queen only one time in entire life!

Research on honey bee lifespan

The honey bee colony is perennial, not like several solitary insects, honey bees have the capability to survive cold temperatures by bunching along in an exceedingly tight cluster to supply and conserve heat. Therefore, a colony of honey bees will survive most of the harshest environmental challenges in the world, an extreme example of the best development of social interaction, eusociality.

Since the honey bee colony is well equipped to react to and survive outside environmental conditions, it’s the beekeeper’s task to anticipate specific issues that challenge colonies. This can be sometimes accomplished by coming back to the help of colonies by correcting population imbalances and/or food shortages, which may then provide them a survival edge. Thus, management is absolutely a study in limiting factors obtainable to the bee colony inbound geographic areas, that is why cultivation, like realty, is commonly captivated with a specific location.

The cultivation calendar guides the beekeeper’s activities throughout the year. It consists of 3 sections: (1) the increase and fall of bee populations, (2) the standing of nectar and spore manufacturing plants (food resources), and (3) farmer colony manipulations supported either or each of the things on top of.

This usually reflects a nice degree the record-keeping ability of the beekeeper-manager as those experiences cataloged over time at a selected location is the most effective teacher, regardless of what percentage records are unbroken, however, the honey bee still retains several of its secrets in “mysterious behaviors.”

In temperate areas, the cultivation calendar is driven principally by photoperiod ( day length not prevailing temperatures), which contributes to the most effective survival of plants honey bees rely on. The presence or absence of daylight on a seasonal basis is much additional foreseeable than localized weather (see Thirty Years of Spring).

Honey bees in tropical areas in contrast to time several activities supported downfall, as a result of day length are invariant, providing few clues thereto potential survival strategy. Specific samples of many cultivation calendars found on the globe Wide internet.

 

Honey Bee Duties, Tasks of a Honey Bee

The Roles of the queen

The main role of the queen honey bee is to lay thousands of eggs per day.  For being able to lay lots of eggs, she will mate with several drones (the male bees) which are called polyandry.  If she lays too few eggs, the workers will intend to replace her with a new queen which is called ‘supersedure’. When the existing colony is large enough to split it and establish a new colony,  the queen becomes active in swarming. At a convenient time, a new queen is produced in the colony. The old queen leaves this colony with part of worker bees and the new stars her role with the rest of the worker bees.

Duties of Worker Bees

01. Generally, bees under 3 days old are responsible to clean and polish the cells for the queen to lay eggs and for the storage of food, and adding disinfecting material ready for the new eggs. 

02. After 3 to 7 days, she becomes a brood nurse. So, it’s her job to feed the larvae with pollen and honey.  Later, they will feed royal jelly to the queen larvae.

03. 14 to 21 days old bees search for pollen, and After about 16 days, she will begin secreting wax from her abdomen for building cells or hexagonal-shaped honeycombs.

04. After about 20 days, she will perform guard duties to defend the entrance of the nest from predators.  Soon after, she will begin foraging for nectar and pollen to store in the hive.

05. Additional duties of worker bees are:

(1) Fanning the hive to regulate the temperature: They are also responsible for air conditioning of the colony to maintain appropriate and ideal temperature and humidity. This act is performed by moving their wings and changing the direction of moving as needed. Because, sometimes they want to throw out hot air (in summer) from the colony, and sometimes they enter hot air from outside (in winter).

(2) Removing dead bees and larvae from the hive, and

(3) Carrying water and propolis to the hive. Propolis is a gum or glue collected from different trees to make bondage tightly in the colony. The Beekeepers use a scraper to remove this gum.

So, all the bees of the colony are responsible for more or less and contribute to the whole process of converting or reforming nectar into honey.

Learn more about the Bee.

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