Amazing life of the honey bee
Ashbourne WI
WE were pleased to welcome 20 members and two members from nearby WIS to our February meeting which was once again held via Zoom and was chaired by the president, Jill Smith.
Our meeting was hosted by Stephanie Cole, and we are most grateful to her for setting up the meeting and enabling us to get together monthly.
We are also fortunate to receive regular updates on activities and news within the WI from members of the committee, keeping us all up to date.
The speaker for the evening was Richard Rickett – his presentation was “Introducing the Amazing Honey Bee”.
Richard, who lives in Bath, is only the sixth editor of Bee Craft Magazine, which was established in 1919. It’s a complete change of career for a man who was previously involved in special effects for the cinema!
Richard started out by showing us a large close-up picture of the head of a worker bee. They have two compound eyes, one on each side of the head, each one with 6,000 lenses that can look for specific things.
The antennae on the front of the head contain tens of thousands of receptors, each measuring something different.
At the bottom of the head are two mandibles (jaws) used for fighting, nipping flower parts, etc. The glands inside the mandibles produce royal jelly.
Moving down the body of the worker bee, on the thorax there are four wings, two forewings and two hindwings. The forewings are larger than the hindwings and cover them when not in flight.
The bee is able to couple the wings by a series of hooks on the leading edge of the hindwings to make them function as a single surface.
The honey bee also has three pairs of segmented legs which are attached to the thorax. They have pollen baskets on their hind legs. Worker bees are female but they do not breed.
The queen bee is female and lays all the eggs for the hive. The drone bees are male and do not have a sting.
There are 24 species of bumble bees, 225 species of solitary bees and only one of honey bees (although there are subspecies which have adapted to local climates – western honey bee, Mediterranean honey bee, North Africa honey bee).
In searching the first appearance of the honey bee we must ask ourselves a similar question to that of which came first, the chicken or the egg – in this case if the plant was first, how did the plant pollinate before the bee?
The earliest recorded bee was found in Myanmar – encased in amber and has been dated as 100 million years old.
Richard went on to give a description of the history of bee hives, their development and construction materials.
Following that an explanation of the work of the various bees within the hive, the life of the queen bee and the worker bees.
He touched on the subject of swarming – a honey bee colony’s natural means of reproduction. The single colony spits into two or more distinct colonies.
Swarming is mainly a spring phenomenon – usually happening within a two or threeweek period. Scout bees search for a suitable new place to live and successful scouts will come back and report the location of suitable nesting sites to the other bees.
As Richard pointed out, a honey bee must fly some 50,000 miles to produce 1lb of honey, visiting over two million flowers.
Favoured flowers are rape, brambles, dandelion, lime tree, ivy and, at this time of the year, crocuses and snowdrops.
Please grow and cultivate flowers loved by bees and other insects. Support your local beekeeper and beware of honeys mixed with disease-ridden honeys from other countries.
WI member Joyce Odell thanked Richard for his very interesting talk.
The next meeting will take place again via Zoom on Thursday, March 11, when Liz Woledge, of Royal Crown Derby will talk about the history of the porcelain manufacturer.
Any members wishing to attend and who have not participated as yet in the Zoom meetings are asked to contact Stephanie Cole.
In the meantime, Ashbourne WI’S committee wishes all its members stay safe and have their vaccine when they are contacted.