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WILDLIFE information on the environment / eolas ar an gcomhshaol

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Honeybees-Interesting Facts

The Honeybee belongs to the months in winter and early spring. insect Hymenoptera,which All worker are females order contains many thousands of (infertile) and are smaller than the species of bees,wasps,ants and queen. The young worker bees many groups of parasitic insects. remain in the hive for two weeks where they are involved in The has been known to the cleaning empty cells, caring for the human race for many thousands of Worker young, building comb and years. There is a very old processing the incoming nectar. educational painting in a rock When the worker is 10 - 14 days shelter in Spain depicting bees. old, it flies to the where it Stone Age man ate honey which forages, collecting nectar, pollen he stole from the nests of wild and water and then returns to the bees. Bees were first kept by man hive. in hollow logs with sticks to Drone support the honey combs. Later Some worker bees perform guard man kept bees in straw baskets duty at the hive entrance called ‘skeps’ and today, bees are defending the hive against kept in standard hives. strangers; other workers at the entrance fan fresh air into the hive There are about 10,000 species of and force out stale air. The bees which roughly are divided Queen movement of the workers’ wings into two main groups: Social Bees help to produce enough heat to that live in colonies and Solitary Three kinds of bees make up a keep the colony of bees at an even Bees that live alone. honey bee colony. The colony consists of thousands of temperature. The sting of a worker Feithidí sóisialta atá sna Beacha workers, one queen and few bee is straight, with barks hooks Meala. Cónaíonn agus saothraíonn hundred drones. on it. Bees depend on their sting as siad le chéile i ngrúpaí móra a their only means of self defence dtugtar coilíneachtaí mar ainm and will only sting when they feel orthu. Is mar seo a leanas leagan The QUEEN honeybee lays the eggs they are under threat. amach na gcoilíneachtaí: that hatch into thousands of DRONES are the male honeybees • A QUEEN (the reproductive young bees. Laying eggs is the and are large burly clumsy female) queen’s only function, she does not creatures with hairy bodies and gather food or build honeycomb. large eyes. They develop from • The WORKERS (infertile females) Queens can live for 3 - 4 years and unfertilized eggs and their only numbering about 10,000 in may lay up to 2,000 eggs per day function is to mate with young winter and increasing to about at a peak time. The queen has a queens. After mating the drones 60,000 in mid summer smooth curved sting which she die. They have no sting and are • DRONES (male bees) numbering uses only to kill rival queens. unable to defend themselves 200 - 1,000 approximately and The WORKERS do all the work in against workers who ruthlessly are present in the colony mainly the colony. They live for about 6 force them out of the hive when during the summer month weeks in summer and up to 6 there is a scarcity of food and at the start of the winter period.

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Bee larvae Honey is presented in many forms: Beeswax Bees like other insects are • LIQUID HONEY: this honey is Beeswax is a by-product of produced from eggs. The queen extracted from the combs and is beekeeping and is a highly lays one egg in each cell of the sold in glass jars. It is available in valuable product. It has many uses comb. The eggs are very small, many different colours depending e.g. candle making, polishes, art, pearly white, visible to the naked on the flowers used by the bee. cosmetics. It is used in beekeeping eye. After three days a tiny • COMB HONEY: is honey stored by as foundation in frames to wormlike larva hatches from each bees in the cells of freshly built encourage bees to build comb. egg. It is fed for three days on food comb and is sold as sections or Beeswax is produced by bees from produced from the head glands of pieces of cut comb in plastic their own bodies. Worker bees have the worker bees. When the larva is containers. four pairs of wax glands on the three days old, it is fed a mixture of underside of their abdomens. The honey and pollen. Five days after • CHUNK HONEY: is liquid honey wax oozes through these glands the larvae hatches, the worker bee with one or more pieces of comb and forms tiny flakes or scales on builds a wax cap over the cell. In honey and is sold in glass jars. the outside of the abdomen. The it’s sealed cell the larvae changes • CREAMED HONEY: all honeys flakes are then passed to the bee’s into a pupa, then the pupa granulate or crystallise with time. jaws. The flakes are then chewed develops into an adult bee. The When the rate of crystallisation is and other materials may be added adult worker bee bites it’s way out controlled, a creamed honey is to them. When they are soft, the of the cell 21 days after the egg is obtained. Creamed honey is bee puts the wax on the part of laid. The drone takes 24 days and suitable as a spread. the comb that it is constructing. the queen 16 days. Wax is produced usually by young Nectar is an essential food for bees worker bees about 10 to 16 days Honey - what is it and how and can be used immediately to old, but in an emergency older is it made? feed bees. If it is not used at once bees can also do the work. The the bees will store nectar as honey From the human point of view, bees produce wax only when it is for use later. If the bees have more honey is the prime product of the needed to build the honeycomb. honey than they need, the honeybee. Honey is a foodstuff, beekeeper will remove the surplus Wax can only be made if the bees which is produced by the honeybee honey for his own use. are very warm. In order to obtain from the nectar of blossoms, which this warmth, the bees cluster bees collect, transform, combine together on the comb they are with specific substances of their By-products of the hive building. The hexagonal shape of own, and store and leave in Propolis the honey comb cells constructed honeycombs. Bees use the honey to Propolis is a by-product of the hive. with remarkable precision and feed the larvae during the winter. It is a sticky substance collected by regularity ensures the least waste Flowers have special glands called the worker bees from the buds of of space and material. A nectaries that produce nectar. various plants and trees e.g. honeycomb has walls that are only Nectar is the sweet liquid which chestnut, laurels, etc. They carry it one eightieth of an inch thick, but plants produce to attract insects for back to the hive on their hind legs. can support 30 times their own pollination. It consists of sugars It is not a food, but a building weight. dissolved in water. Honeybees suck material. It is used as a type of up nectar from the nectaries of the ‘cement’ to any cracks or When the beekeeper uncaps flower with their long tongues and crevices in the hive. It is also used honeycombs to recover honey, he store it in their honey sacs. When in the construction of combs to collects the wax cappings and any the honeybee has filled it’s honey give added strength. The bees will other unusable comb. These he sac with nectar, it returns to the use propolis to encase and seal any heats in water and the wax rises to hive. In the hive the bee unwanted objects in the hive too the surface. After it cools and regurgitates the nectar and passes heavy for the bees to remove e.g. a hardens, the cake of wax is it to the hive bees who put it in an mouse. The propolis prevents the removed and refined for re-use. empty cell in the hive for use as mouse from rotting and creating a needed. While the nectar is in the nasty smell. There is considerable Plant pollination bee’s honey sac, it combines with evidence that propolis contains The greatest value of honeybees is enzymes. In the honey comb the antibiotic properties and is said to in their service as pollinators waterevaporates and the chemicals have beneficial effects in cases of which far outweigh their value as from the bee change the nectar sore throats, infectious wounds honey producers. Pollination is the into honey.When the honey is ripe and in relieving many human term used to describe the transfer the bees seal it into the cells by complaints and sicknesses. putting wax caps on the honey of pollen from the male element of filled cells. the flower to the female element of the same flower, or to other INFORMATION ON THE ENVIRONMENT / EOLAS AR AN GCOMHSHAOL

flowers of the same species. Many The Body of a Worker Bee plants are air pollinated and have forewing no need of insects e.g. coniferous Circulatory system trees, grasses and most cereals. Thorax Fruit trees and soft fruit require simple eyes hind wing special pollinators i.e. insect pollination. It has been proven that compound heart apples, pears, plums and other eye Abdomen hardy fruits and soft fruits will antenna digestive yield a much heavier crop and a system better shaped fruit when pollen head nervous stinger pollinated by the honeybee. The system basket bee’s food consists of pollen and nectar. In order to obtain these the foreleg, with antenna being cleaned in notch middle leg hind leg bee flies from flower to flower collecting them. In doing so, the flowers are pollinated. The bee also limited vision. They are not capable plays an important part in the Bee stings of forming any image on a retina pollination of ornamental plants and it is thought that their Most bees depend on their sting as and flowers. The destruction of function is to determine light from their only means of self-defence. many of the old and established darkness and possibly to see which The glands attached to the sting hedges which were the natural way is ‘up’. The compound eyes are contain venom or poison that is habitat of wild insects and wild extremely complicated. Each mainly formic acid. The sting of the bees, who played an important compound eye consists of a great worker bee is straight and barbed. part in pollination, has increased number of facets, each of which When the bee thrusts the sting the need for honeybees. function as a single lens. The into the flesh, it is unable to number of facets varies from 3,000 withdraw the sting because of the The external features of the to 6,000 in the queen and worker barbs and the sting is torn from adult bee and as many as 13,000 in the the bee’s body. It remains in the drone. Behind each facet is a lens flesh with it’s muscles pumping Honeybees vary in colour from reaching down to the retina. more venom into the flesh. To black to yellow. The honeybee, like Because of it’s construction, the prevent this the sting should be many other insects, has a body retina cannot form an image but scraped loose at once. You should that is divided into three sections : receives a mosaic of dots of never squeeze the sting when the head, the thorax and the varying intensities. Vision by removing it as this will force more abdomen. human standards is poor, but venom into the wound. A sting will The head of the bee has five eyes: detection of movement is cause sudden pain at the site of three small ones in a triangle on excellent. Bees cannot focus their the sting and swelling of the top of it’s head and a large eyes because the eyes have no affected area may follow. Some compound eye on each side of it’s pupils. Bees can distinguish people may develop allergic head. The three small eyes or ocelli colours, their best vision is at the reactions to stings such as are simple eyes and have very ultra violet end of the spectrum. difficulty in breathing, blotched skin and in more severe cases, The head also has two long feelers anaphylactic shock. This type of or antennae with which the bee reaction usually develops in less The Head of a Worker Bee can sense, touch, taste and smell. than an hour and those affected The bees tongue is a flexible tube should seek immediate medical Three simple eyes which it uses to suck water and assistance. The worker bee dies compound nectar into its mouth. within a few hours of stinging. The eye The Thorax carries two pairs of queen bee has a smooth curved wings. The front pair is bigger than sting which she uses only to kill the hind pair and the two wings of other queens. She is able to each side are hooked together. The withdraw the sting after use and therefore does not die after using antenna bee has three pairs of legs. Part of it’s hind legs are used for carrying it. Drones do not possess a sting. pollen and propolis. This area is known as the pollen basket. The Why keep bees? mouth parts sting is situated at the tip of the A lot of people keep bees because tongue abdomen. they produce honey, one of the healthiest and most natural foods

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which has been valued by man Gormanstown, Co. Meath. It is held Mr. D.J. Deasy (Public Relations since prehistory, as a sweetener. during the last week of July. Officer) Many people also keep bees 45 Waltham Tce, Blackrock, This course comprises a series of because they are interested in the Co. Dublin. lectures designed to suit all levels study of bees and of their habits. Tel: 01 2889085. of expertise including Bees are fascinating creatures and practicaldemonstrations. The Irish there is always something new to National Honey Show is held Further reading learn about them. Beekeeping is an during this course and in successive Profitable Honey Production, enjoyable open air hobby bringing years recently, winners at this Show published by Teagasc you in contact with people from all have gone on to take the Supreme walks of life. Bees can be kept by Award and many other awards at Guide to Bees and Honey, by Ted almost everyone except a small the London International Honey Hooper Published by Marston minority who are allergic to bee Show. The F.I.B.K.A. maintain a large House, UK. stings. Bees are kept not only in the library of bee books which are countryside but also in back yards, available to members. It publishes Bees at the bottom of the Garden gardens and even on flat roof a monthly journal ‘An Beachaire’ by Alan Campion & Gay Hodgson buildings in the centre of large devoted to beekeeping. It holds Published by Adam & Charles towns and cities. examinations to help to improve Black, London beekeeping standards and it Ireland has a long tradition of maintains a panel of excellent beekeeping. Legend tells us that lectures to talk 6to beekeeping ‘The First Beekeeper in Ireland’ was This leaflet is based on an associations. It also runs a labelling St. Modomnoc who lived in the information leaflet by Mr Michael scheme to identify ‘Pure Irish sixth century. He brought bees to Gleeson, Federation of Irish Honey’. If you are thinking of taking Ireland from Wales. Beekeepers Association, with up beekeeping or want further assistance from Dr Martin Speight, information on beekeeping, contact Honeybees and beekeeping played National Parks and Wildlife Service. a very important part in society in the following: ancient Ireland. Bees were kept in Mr. Michael G. Gleeson (Hon. the gardens of abbeys and Secretary) monasteries and honey, wax and Ballinakill, Enfield, Co. Meath. mead were all very valuable Tel: 0405 41433 commodities. Mead, which is made from honey, was a very important Mr. Michael Woulfe (Summer beverage which was served in Course Convener) many of the great monasteriesand Railway House, Midleton, Co. Cork. at many of the great feasts in the Tel: 021 631011. homes of the ancient kings of Ireland. Beeswax was in great demand for candle making for use in the churches of the great abbeys and monasteries. Today beekeeping is practised in all Issued by: parts of Ireland. There are in excess roof ENFO – The Environmental Information Service, of 2,000 beekeepers in the Republic 17 St Andrew Street, board or of Ireland keeping 22,000 colonies Dublin 2, Ireland. of bees. inner cover super (to hold Tel: (01) 8883911 (01) 8883933 Irish beekeepers are organised in honey frames Fax: (01) 888 3946 local associations and the e-mail: [email protected] www.enfo.ie Federation of Irish Beekeepers queen excluder Associations (F.I.B.K.A) is the Write to or visit our Centre at the above representative body of these brood box (to address or you may check out the ENFO hold brood information stands at your Local Authority associations. Anyone intending to Office / County Library take up the craft of beekeeping is frames) advised to join their nearest floor association which will provide help ENFO is a service of the Department of the and guidance including classes and Environment, Heritage and Local courses on beekeeping. The F.I.B.K.A. Government. organise a week long summer entrance block course on beekeeping each year at Printed on recycled paper the Franciscan College Parts of a typical modern hive November 2000