Bee

The bees They are insects They are about fifteen millimeters long and form colonies made up of a single fertilized female (Queen), several sterile females (workers), and a large number of males (drones). These tiny creatures usually live in hollows in trees or in hives developed by the human being.

The bees, producers so much of wax like honey, constitute the set Anthophil, from the family known as Apoidea. There are, according to experts, about 20 thousand species of bees identified, which are located on all continents, except for the Antarctica, and they feed on pollen Y nectar.

They have character pollinator, since they are in charge of transferring the pollen from the organ male from the flowers (known as the anther) to the female organ (that is, the stigma), which enables the fusion of the male and female gamete of the ovule to take place. It should be noted that the first pollinators of flowers were not bees, although over the years they have become the most efficient, but beetles and flies.

Bees are raised by humans for honey, a sweet substance that they produce from the nectar they collect from flowers, plant fluids or the excretions of other insects. The bees capture these elements, mix them with an enzyme present in their saliva called invertase and keep them inside the combs. There they reach maturity and are transformed into honey, the extraction of which is carried out through the technique known as beekeeping.

The reproduction of these animals takes place through eggs, which are deposited in compartments called alveoli. From the eggs that are fertilized, female bees will be born that later will become workers; from those that are not fertilized, males emerge. The larvae that will become the queens of the hive, on the other hand, are fed royal jelly; the rest eat porridge made with pollen and honey.

Workers, drones and queens

The workers live for about 45 days and are in charge of carrying out all the tasks they do to the organization from the hive. According to the life span, your responsibilities change. In the first four days, their job is to clean the hive and the alveoli. Then, until the 11th, her job is to nurse and feed the royal larvae. The next three days it must store pollen and nectar and ventilate and maintain humidity and temperature in the hive by flapping its wings. Then, until the 17th, as their wax-producing glands have already developed, their job is to build the combs. From the 18th to the 21st he is a sentry and must guard the entrance to the hive. The rest of the days he is in charge of collecting pollen and nectar, and bringing food to the rest of the Suburb.

The drones are no more than 100 (against 70,000 who can become the workers), they are round, fat and hairy. They are not able to feed themselves, so the workers are in charge of feeding them; they also lack a stinger so they don't even serve to protect the hive. Their only job is to impregnate the queen, and some don't even succeed. Also, once they have, the queen guts them; those who make it out of the hive alive perish irretrievably. If they try to return, they are thrown out by the guards as they are considered useless mouths that feed.

Per litter, there are several larvae that could become queens; however only one will succeed. The first real bee that is born has the mission to kill the rest; in other words, eliminate the competition. In the event that two queen bees are born at the same time, a fight to the death will begin. After six days, the one that has emerged victorious will undertake a single nuptial flight, in which it will be fertilized by about ten drones and then return to the hive. From that moment, their task will be to lay eggs throughout their life, which lasts between 4 and 5 years. It should be noted that the queen is the only bee that has reproductive capacity. In addition, it is in charge of secreting a chemical substance that is called a pheromone, which, when licked by the rest of the bees, transmits the necessary information to know how the job from the hive.