Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants and are essential to pollination.  Worldwide there are over 16,000 known species of bees, with 1,700 species of native bees in Australia. Some bees, such as honey bees, bumblebees and stingless bees, live socially in colonies.  However, 90% of bee species such as mason, carpenter, leafcutter, and sweat bees are solitary.

Bees are found on every continent except Antarctica and every habitat with insect-pollinated flowering plants.  While bees feed on nectar and pollen, the nectar is primarily an energy source for bees.  Pollen is taken back to the hive and used for their larvae.

Characteristics

All bees have large, round, compound eyes covering much of their head.  Between these large eyes are three smaller eyes that provide information on light intensity.  Their antennae have 13 segments in males and 12 in females with an elbow joint part way along.  The bees mouth is adapted for both sucking and chewing.

Their body has three segments, with a pair of robust legs in each segment. The membranous wings are on the two back segments.  Bees have four wings that hook together, forming one large pair when flying. When not in flight, the wings unhook back into two wings on each side.  The front legs are used to clean their antennae, while the back legs contain pollen baskets.

Bee Populations

The Australian honey bee population decreases each year due to climate change, pesticides and disease. Over 100 thousand commercial beehives were lost in Australia in the ten years between 2006 and 2016. The Green Carpenter Bee is listed as endangered by the South Australian State Government. An estimated 95% of its last remaining habitat of the Green Carpenter Bee on Kangaroo Island was lost in the recent bushfires. The Green Carpenter Bee is extinct in Victoria.

Studies have found at least nine species of Australian bees meet the criteria for the IUCN Red List for vulnerable, and two meet the category for endangered. Most bees on the list lost between 55 to 59% of their habitat in the recent bushfires. Bee pollination is vital, both economically and commercially. 90% of plants and 75% of crops depend on pollination. Crops such as almonds are 100% reliant on bees for pollination.

Honey Bee Life Cycle

The life cycle of a honey bee starts as an egg, then development through several moults, followed by the pupae stage.  Finally, the bee undergoes complete metamorphosis during the pupae stage before emerging as a winged adult.  There are three castes of bees, queens, drones and workers. 

– Queens

Each colony contains typically a single queen who lays around 2,000 eggs per day at a rate of one per minute, day and night.  The average lifespan is two to four years though some live as long as eight years.  As the queen’s age, their productivity declines. So the hive replaces her whereby the nurse bees feed royal jelly to 10-20 young larvae to create a new queen.  If one new queen emerges first, she stings her unhatched rivals, killing them in their cells. However, if more than one new queen emerges simultaneously, they take flight, fight with the other queens to the death, and then mate in the air with the male bees (drones). Sometimes the hive kills the old queen when the new queen is ready to take over. At other times they allow her to live and die naturally.  

– Worker bees

Sterile females are the worker bees. Therefore, their lifespan depends on when they are born.  Spring/summer is the height of hive activity, and bees born at this time live five to six weeks.  In contrast, bees born in autumn/winter while the hive is inactive may live for four to six months. The worker bees make the honeycomb nests from wax secreted from their abdominal glands and produce honey.  When the worker bee returns to the hive, the collected nectar is passed to the bees inside the hive.  They then pass it mouth to mouth until the moisture content is reduced from 70% to 20%.  This process changes the nectar into honey.  Finally, the honey is placed into cells and capped with beeswax for the next lot of baby bees. Next, they mix pollen with the honey to create “bee bread”.  This is then fed to the larvae.

– Drones

Male bees are called drones.  They have no stinger and no proboscis for collecting nectar.  Their sole purpose is to wait for a new queen to emerge and mate with her.  While there are several hundred drones in the hive over spring and summer, they are expelled in winter when the hive goes into survival mode.

Stingers

The stingers are actually a modified organ used to lay and position eggs. Accordingly, only female members of the hive can use their stinger. A queens stinger is smooth and can be used many times. A worker bees stinger is barbed; thus, when they sting their victim, it is becomes lodged in the skin. When the worker bee flies away, the stinger stays behind, leaving a pumping venom sac. Within minutes, the worker bee will die from a massive abdominal rupture received when the stinger was torn from their abdomen. Bees only sting in defence of the hive or when roughly handled.

Hive Behaviour

While pivotal to the hive’s health, the queen bee is its mother, not its ruler. On average, a hive contains 40,000 bees.  Bees do not hibernate. However, during winter, after expelling all the male bees from the hive, the female bees remain in the hive and live on the stored honey and pollen. clustering into a ball to conserve warmth. During the winter period, they feed the larvae, and, by spring, the hive is swarming with new workers and drones. 

Reproduction

Male bees (drones)  are almost entirely focused on reproduction.  They leave the hive searching for virgin queens, but only a small percentage succeed in mating.  The act of procreation results in catastrophic injuries to the abdomen of the male bee, leading to almost immediate death.  Drones that do not mate have a life expectancy of 90 days.

Commercial bee hives

The first recorded European honey bees arrived in Australia in 1822 aboard the Isabella. Since that time, honey bees have become firmly established. There are over 30,000 registered beekeepers in Australia, managing over 668,000 hives. Australia is one of the top ten honey producing countries in the world.

Honey

There are more floral sources for making honey in Australia than any other country.  Consequently, Australia has the broadest range of honey tastes and colours.   

• Bluegum – light amber in colour, choice forest honey from the south.
• Karri – amber honey from the forests of Western Australia.
• Leatherwood –unique honey from the west coast of Tasmania, quick to candy and extra light in colour.
• Lucerne – mild-tasting honey.
• Yellow box – pale and sweet honey from New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
• Stringybark – strong flavoured, medium amber honey from the Great Dividing Range.
• Ti-tree is very strong flavoured honey used mainly in manufacturing, from the north and south.
• White clover – extra white honey that candies smoothly.
• Manuka  – exclusively from New Zealand, contains methylglyoxal, which is portenitally an antibacterial, antiviral, anti inflammatory, and antioxidant.  It has been used to treat inflammatory skin conditions and heal wounds. However, people with diabetes, an allergy to bees or under the age should not eat manuka.

Eight Fun Facts

1. The bees wings beat 11,400 times a minute
2. Only female bees can sting
3. Honey bees communicate through a series of dance moves.  This is called a ‘waggle dance.’
4. It takes 300 bees around three weeks to make 450g of honey.
5. The honey bee is the only insect that produces food fit for human consumption
6. The antioxidant in honey improves brain function
7. A bee has five eyes
8. The inside of a hive is 32.5°C

Recipe

Try the Mocha Honey Cheesecake from the Australian Honey Bee council.

Many thanks to Jason from Hi Ho Honey in Trawool, Vic., for allowing us to photograph him opening the hives.