...for discerning weeders ALL A-BUZZ
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Peanut butter challenge
2
Events
3-4
Rabies
5
Contest
6
Book Review Mycelium
7
Book Review Straw bales
8
Wildlife Happenings
8
Updates and Info
9
Invasive Plant
10
The Swamp
10
Recipe Round-Up
11
Out and About
12
Last Word
14
HAVE YOU LOGGED ON TO VMS LATELY? DON’T FORGET TO KEEP YOUR HOURS UP TO DATE!
by P. Garrett
Before attending UF’s Bee College in 2010, I thought all honeybees were essentially the same. I really didn’t give much thought to whether honeybees could be either male or female or even whether there was a division of labor in the hive. I hope this and next month’s article clears up some misconceptions, adds to your knowledge base and ,as always, helps all of us develop even more of an appreciation for our beloved insect, Apis Mellifera. There are three castes in a colony: the queen, drones and workers. All drones are male and all workers are female. The queen’s primary function is to lay the eggs. Usually she lays ALL the eggs in a colony but occasionally when the queen pheromone is low or she just isn’t producing enough eggs, one or more of the workers may get an inkling to lay eggs too. Unfortunately, ALL of those eggs will become drones as they are unfertilized eggs. All female bees have the capability to lay eggs, but only the queen, who has previously mated with drones, can produce female offspring. When a worker decides to lay eggs, we call this “laying worker phenomenon” and it is pretty easily detected. In the cells on the frame where the brood should normally be, if a laying worker is suspected, the cell may hold more than one egg. I have seen up to 3 eggs in a laying worker cell. Also, the eggs usually aren’t in the right place as the worker’s abdomen isn’t long enough to reach the bottom of the cell correctly. Understandably, these multiple eggs will not develop properly. Once this phenomenon is started, it is very difficult to stop. You may be wondering how a queen knows when to lay a fertilized egg or an unfertilized egg? The worker bees fashion the cells in the honeycomb and they make the drone cells a little bit larger. We think this is how the queen knows which egg to lay. Controlled by the female worker bees, not the queen. When all is going well, there always seems to be just the right number of workers and drones in a colony,
An Okaloosa County Master Gardener Publication
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imagine that! Approximately 5% of a strong colony are drones and depending on the time of year, a total of anywhere from 10,000 to 60,000 honeybees in a managed colony. Basically, the drones are responsible for two things, eating and fertilizing queens. A drone has a 24-day larval and transition period whereas a worker has 21 days. After birth, drones will do orientation flights for a week or two, and then for a few hours each day, fly up into the wild blue yonder into the “DCA,” the Drone Congregation Area, to mate with virgin queens. Drones have huge eyes to better see queens from a distance and do not have stingers! Unfortunately, upon mating with the queen and upon insertion of his appendage, he is temporarily stunned, paralyzed and falls to his death, leaving his appendage in her majesty. Boy, just when you were thinking those drones have it made! When her majesty returns to the colony, her “attendants” proceed to clean her to remove all the foreign body parts. She may mate with 15 to 17 drones. Some say the queen flies into the DCA for only a few days, up to a week, but basically she will return every day until her “spermatheca” is full of sperm. Once it is full, she is done mating for life. That is why we don’t clip a virgin queen’s wings. We want them to be able to fly high (about 300’ ) to the DCA. Then, after we see she is laying eggs in the hive, we clip one of her four wings to prevent her from flying too far if the instinct to swarm comes her way. Cont’d on page 2 October, 2014