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The Bee Nursery

Bee Workers

How Workers are Reared

Three days after the egg is placed in the. brood cell, the shell begins to sway as the larva inside it moves. Finally, the larva breaks the shell and escapes onto the bottom of the cell. Nurse worker bees seem to be able to sense that the egg has hatched. They immediately enter the cell and leave a tiny drop of food near the larva. This food is milky and is made in the bee’s head land. It is sometimes called royal jelly and sometimes called bee milk. After three days of royal jelly the diet of the worker larva is slowly changed until it is getting mostly pollen or bee bread mixed with honey or nectar. During the first five or six days after hatching each larva receives as many as 2,000 visits from many different nurse bees. The larva is given food during only 100-200 of these visits. The remainder are “inspection" visits. The interesting mystery is how the bees manage to feed each larva at the proper time with the right amount of food of the right kind, especially since so many of them care for each larva.

By the time a larva is five or six days old, it becomes large enough to fill its cell. Worker bees then place a wax cap over the cell entrance. A few days later the larva sheds its skin and a pupa, like the ones in the picture, comes out. After a few more days the pupa gradually becomes tan. Finally, it becomes light brown and a few hours later the pupa’s skin splits and an adult worker bee comes out. This takes place on about the 20th day after the egg was first deposited in the brood cell. The new worker chews away the cell cap and crawls out to join the thousands of other worker bees as a member of the hive.

More About a Bee Colony

A bee colony can live for many years, even though individual bees do not live long. Some colonies survive beyond 20 years. One of the most frequent causes of death is starvation. In parts of the world where there is a season without flowers (usually winter) the bees must collect and store enough food to eat during this season. Honeybees need 40 to 70 pounds of honey to keep one bee colony alive during the winter and spring months in a temperate climate. More than 100 pounds of honey are needed in a climate where flowers are available during a short growing season of two to four months. Sometimes the nest space is too small to store enough food. Sometimes bad weather or dry seasons may prevent enough food from being collected. Sometimes the winter is longer than usual. In each case the bees may finish their store of food before new food supplies become available.

Injury, sickness, or old age may prevent a queen from laying enough eggs. This is another cause of colony death. As the older workers die off, they are not replaced and finally, there are none left. However, a failing queen usually is sensed by the workers and replaced by a new one (see Raising a New Queen) before the colony population is reduced seriously.

Sometimes colonies die as a result of predators, such as skunks, toads, wasps and ants. Diseases may also kill so many bees that there are not enough left to care for the brood or defend the colony from its enemies. Today many bee colonies are killed by insecticides that are sprayed onto the plants where bees collect food.


Acknowledgements

The Bees section was created with special thanks to Louis Juers (Arizona State Parks & Trails) for providing information used in this section. Additional information and digital materials were obtained from some of the following organizations. We would like to thank them for all their dedication and hard work within their profession.


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