Bees for Development
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Understanding the biology and behaviour of the bee is the first step towards being able to manage them sustainably and productively. Beekeepers need to understand the biology and behaviour of bees, to understand why bees swarm, abscond, or why hives have not been colonised.
The world’s industrialised beekeeping sector is based on races of just one species of honey bee: Apis mellifera. The world of the honey bee is complex and fascinating and is different from most of the other animals that people farm because it is a social insect. This fact has some far reaching practical consequences that need to be taken into account for beekeeping to be successful. The honey bee is one of the most well researched animals: the honey bee genome has been sequenced.
Image©Primo Masotti maso101@libero.it
Honey bees such as Apis mellifera build a nest containing multiple combs inside a cavity, which may be a hollow tree, a cave, or a cavity in a wall or in the ground. They can also be kept inside a human-made container, otherwise known as a hive. The first bee hives were hollow logs or simple cylinders made of natural materials and after thousands of years these types of hives are still used. The hive enables bee colonies to be owned, sited in particular places and allows interventions by people and has ultimately led to the craft known as beekeeping.
Honey bee nests are built using a series of parallel combs made of beeswax and, depending on the types of hives used, combs containing honey can be removed without harming combs containing brood. It was by studying the precise arrangement and measurements of honeycombs that led the Rev. Langstroth, working in the 1850s, to understand the idea of the bee space which led to the development of hive management techniques using movable comb and frame hives.
Other cavity nesting honey bee species, such as Apis cerana can also be kept in hives. In Asia, there are other species of honey bees that nest in the open and cannot be kept in man-made hives. Honey hunting and rafter beekeeping techniques have been developed to obtain honey and beeswax from these species.
The thousands of species of both solitary and social bees worldwide that are not exploited by mankind offer fascinating insights into the evolution of social behaviour and the mutually beneficial relationship between bees and plants.
Tautz, J. 2008. The Buzz about Bees. Biology of a Superorganism. Springer, Germany. click here to view in our bookstore
Seeley, T.D. 1995. The Wisdom of the Hive: The Social Physiology of Honey Bee Colonies. Harvard University Press, London, England. click here for more information.
List of Articles available on this topic (69):
Title | Author |
ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture, The | Root, A I |
Abstract Proceedings: 11th Asian Apicultural Association Conference, ApiExpo & Workshop | Asian Apicultural Assocaition |
African Honey Bees | |
Anatomy of the Honey Bee | Snodgrass, R E |
Apis mellifera adansonii in the uplands of West Cameroon | Romet, A. |
Beautiful Queens and Honey Too! - Sladen\'s Techniques for Queen Rearing Updated | Fields B. |
Bee behaviour: Understanding the basics will one day save you, or your buisness | Goltz, L. |
Bee research digest: Crowding in the hive and productivity | Southwick, E.E. |
Beekeeping in a Nutshell: Manipulations | Allan, M. |
Beekeeping in the Amhara Region | Kebede, A., Ejigu, K., Aynalem, T., Jenberie, A |
Bees & Honey: from flower to jar | Weiler, M. |
Bees Dance | Chauvin, R. & Serres, P. |
Bees, Biology and Managment | Kevan, P. |
Breeding Techniques and Selection for Breeding of the Honeybee | Ruttner, F |
Brood nest arrangements in top-bar hives | Woyke, J |
Chemical characterization of Apis cerana F and Apis dorsata F honey from Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka (India) | Chhuneja, P.K., Singh, A.S. and Sharma, D.K. |
Comb building by bees | Taber, S. |
Dancing For Their Supper: Foraging Ecology and Dance Language of the Honey Bee | Sheffield University |
Effect of population size on brood production, worker survival and honey gain in colonies of honeybees | Harbo, J.R. |
First Aid for Bee and Wasp Stings | Simics, M. |
Foraging cycle and pollen sources of Apis mellifera L in Dharwad, Karnatak, India | Kallesha, G.R., Viraktamath, S. |
Honey bee biology : encounters with the giant honey bee: Apis dorsata - part III | Mangum, W.A. |
Honey bee biology: encounters with the giant honey bee: Apis dorsata - part 1 | Mangum, W.A. |
Honey bee biology; encounters with the giant honey bee: Apis dorsata - Part 2 | Mangum, W.A. |
Honey bee biology; encounters with the giant honey bee: Apis dorsata - Part 3 | Mangum, W.A. |
Honey Bee Pathology | Bailey, L |
Honeybee Biology | Free, J B |
Honeybee Democracy | Seeley, T.D. |
How to find wild bees/Como encontrar abelhas silvestres | Hertz, O. |
Hygienic and grooming behaviour in disease resistance of two honeybee ecogeographic varieties (Apis mellifera carnica) from Serbia | Stanimirovis, Z., Stevanovic, J., Pejovic, D., Mirlovic, M. |
Importance of Visual and Olfactory Information Strategies of the Honeybee Apis Mellifera | Giurfa, R.M. |
Insect behavior | Matthews,R W; Matthews, J R |
Inside/out - the drone | Collins, A. |
Keeping Bees in Towns and Cities | Dixon, L. |
Living with Killer Bees: The Story of the Africanized Bee Invasion | Flakus, G. |
Manual de Apicultura para Ambientes Subtropicales: Una Propuesta de: \'La Red de Escuelas del Noroeste Argentina (NOA)\' | Dini, C. & Bedascarrasbure, E. |
Migratory beekeeping in Himachal Pradesh | Chauham, S.K., Sharma, S.K. |
Mites beehiving badly | Waite, R. |
More research on the waggle dance | Teale, A. |
Natural antibiotic found in honey | Bradbear, N., Martin, P. & Wainwright, D. |
Observations on the swarming and mating habits of the Indian honeybee | Sharma, P.L. |
Organisation of colony reproduction in the honey bee | Davis, C. |
Pheromones and Hymenoptera | Pain, J. |
Publications relating to African Honey Bees and Beekeeping reported in Apicultural Abstracts 1990 (editions 1 - 4) and 1991 (editions 1 - 3) | |
Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us? | Siegel, T. & Betz, J. |
Reducing stress in the apiary | Field, M. |
Reproduction in Apis cerana: 2. Reproductive organs and natural insemination | Ruttner, F., Wokye, J. and Koeniger, N. |
Secrets of the Beehive Life Cycle of the Honeybee | Thorne, E.H. |
Small and perfectly formed | Davis, C. |
Smart Swarm | Miller, P. |
Sniffing Out the Enemy: Shifting Acceptance Thresholds for Recognition in Honey Bees | Couvillon, Dr Margaret J. |
Some Observations on Biology and Behaviour | Clauss, Bernhard |
Studies on the behaviour of the stingless bee, Trigona Iridipennis Smith (Apidae: Meliponinae) | Mohan, R., Devanesan, S. |
The BBKA Guide to Beekeeping | Davis, I. & Cullum-Kenyon, R. |
The Biology of the Honey Bee | Winston, M.L. |
The buzz about bees: biology of a superorganism | Tautz, J. |
The Honey Bee inside out | Davis, C.F. |
The honeybee | Sentilla,G |
The need for using laboratory tests in breeding honeybees for improves honey production | Milne, C.P. |
The process of queen-worker differentiation in the honeybee | Beetsma, J. |
The Social Organization of Honeybees | Free, J B |
The super organism: the beauty, elegance and strangeness of insect societies | Holldabler, B. and Wilson, E.O. |
The tarsal glands of honeybee queens, workers and drones.II Biological role. | Lensky Y; Cassier P; Finkel A; Teeshee A; Schlesinger R; Delorme-Joulie C; Levinsohn M |
The Wisdom of the Hive: The Social Physiology of Honeybee Colonies | Seeley, T.D. |
There are Queen Cells in my Hive - What Should I do? | Welsh Assembly Government |
Top-bar hives reveal subtle comb-building behavior | Mangum,W.A. |
Ultrastructural Change in the Hypopharyngeal Glands of Worker Honey Bees (Apis cerana) Infected with Sacbrood Virus | Du Z.-L., Zhang Z.-B |
Virus causes aggression? | Flottum, K |
Waggle dance controversy resolved | Bees for Development |