Beekeeping - Apiculture in Arkansas

Introduction to Beekeeping
Honey bees are perhaps the most beneficial animals on the planet. Their foraging activities
ensure the successful reproduction of countless plant species as well as the animals that
depend on plants for survival. Bees emerged as a distinct group, evolving from their cousins,
the Sphecid Wasps, during the Cretaceous period over 100 million years ago. There are about
20,000 described species of bees in the world. About 4000 are native to the new world. Most
are solitary to gregarious, and do not make honey, but all are important pollinators in their
habitats. The species we know as the honey bee probably originated in Africa, and has changed
little in the past 30 million years. Prehistoric peoples discovered honey and produced cave
paintings depicting the gathering of wild honeycombs more than 10,000 years ago. For much of
human history, honey was the only sweetener available. Often a rare find it was a highly prized
seasonal treat.

The ancient Egyptians were probably the first culture to maintain bees in artificial hives. They
would float barges laden with clay hives up the Nile River where flowers were plentiful. They
would allow the bees to forage by day, and then drift back down the river at night as new
flowers bloomed through the season. Later, the Greeks adopted beekeeping, inventing the first
top-bar hives. The Romans also kept bees. The practice was widespread in medieval Europe,
where castles, monasteries and peasants commonly kept bees in various types of hives for their
honey as well as their wax. The lightweight straw skep largely replaced the heavy terracotta
hives of the ancients. In the forests of Eastern Europe, colonies of wild honey bees were hunted
and carefully managed. Sometimes sections of a hollow bee tree were removed and
transported to home to be kept. Often the bees were left in the trees, which were modified by
making a larger opening in the tree, and securing it with a plank of wood. This allowed a honey
hunter to periodically open the cavity and remove combs of honey without destroying the
colony.

European colonists have transported honey bees to much of the rest of the world. Brought to
the Jamestown colony in the early 1600s, bees adapted well to the climate, and thrived in the
old growth forests along the east coast and into the Appalachian Mountains. Often preceding
the westward spread of the colonist pioneers, Native Americans referred to the bees as White
Man's Flies. Today honey bees have been established on every continent except Antarctica.

Beginning in the second half of the 19th century, beekeeping underwent a revolution of
invention and innovation. With the widespread adoption of moveable frame hives, bee colonies

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could be inspected and honey could be harvested without destroying the bee colony. With
steamship travel shortening transatlantic travel, new races of bees became available in the U.S.,
and the gentle Italian bees (Apis meliffera lingustica) began to replace the temperamental and
disease-prone German variety (Apis meliffera meliffera). Suddenly beekeeping became a viable
and profitable industry.

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The Three Bees
There are different castes of honey bees: Worker, Drone and Queen. Each caste
has its own important roles and performs specific duties in a bee colony.

Worker
Workers are the smallest of the bee castes, but are by far the most
numerous. All workers are female, but normally incapable of reproduction.
They are unable to mate, but in a hopelessly queenless colony, workers may
begin to lay unfertilized eggs, which develop into drones. Workers do all of
the necessary tasks within a colony. They secrete the wax used in the hive,
and form it into honeycombs. They forage for all of the nectar and pollen
brought into the hive, and transform the nectar into honey. They produce
royal jelly to feed to the queen and young larvae. They also tend to the needs of the larvae and
queens. They cap the cells of mature larvae for pupation and remove debris and dead bees
from the hive. Worker bees defend the hive against intruders and maintain the optimal
temperature by heating or cooling and ventilating the hive with their wings. Workers have well -
developed compound eyes on the sides of their heads, and three simple eyes (ocelli) at the
vertex. Their tongue is well developed and elongated for sucking up nectar from flowers.

Workers reared in the spring and early summer tend to live for five to six weeks. The first two
weeks of their lives is spent as house bees, doing tasks in the hive. The remainder of this time is
spent as field bees, foraging for food outside the hive. Workers that reach maturity in the late
fall may live well into the following spring. They must maintain a cluster of bodies around the
queen bee, keeping her warm through the winter months. Later, when egg-laying resumes,
they must raise the first generation of young bees the next year.

Queen
The queen bee can be recognized by her abdomen, which is usually
smooth, and elongated, extending well beyond her folded wings. Her
function in the hive is one of production. She is the only reproductive
female in the colony. Egg-laying begins in early spring, initiated when
the first spring pollen is brought home by the workers. Egg
production will continue until fall, or as long as pollen is available. At
the height of her productivity, the queen could lay as many as 2000
eggs each day. A queen bee can live for up to five years, but her

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period of usefulness rarely exceeds two years. Younger queens produce many more eggs, and
older ones may produce excessive drones. Many beekeepers requeen their colonies every year
or two. Older queens are often superseded (replaced) by the workers without any assistance,
or even knowledge, of the beekeeper. Good quality queens can be reared by an experienced
beekeeper, but a beginner will do better to buy good queens from a reputable producer.

Queen bees also produce pheromone known as queen substance. This mixture of chemicals is
passed individually from bee to bee throughout the entire hive as they share food. If a queen
bee is removed from a colony, the workers will notice her absence within about two of hours
because of the drop in the level of this pheromone. This queenless state quickly initiates the
urge to rear a new "emergency" queen from a young larvae (1-3 days old). The presence of this
pheromone also inhibits the development of the workers' ovaries. After a period of
queenlessness, they may become laying workers. Workers also evaluate their queen based on
the quantity of this pheromone she produces. If workers begin to receive an insufficient dose
each day, they may perceive her as poor quality, and begin making preparations to supersede
her. Beekeepers often mark the queen's thorax with a dot of paint to make her easy to find,
and to determine if she has been replaced.

Drone
Drones are the male caste of honey bee. They are visibly larger and
stouter than workers. They possess large distinctive eyes that meet on
the top of their heads, and have antennae slightly longer than the
workers or queen. Their mouthparts are generally reduced. Drones
develop from unfertilized eggs, and drone cells are visibly larger than
those of workers. Drones do not tend the brood, produce wax, or
collect pollen or nectar. They will feed themselves directly from honey
cells in the hive.

The only function of the drones is to fertilize a young queen bee. They are reared chiefly in the
spring and summer, beginning about four weeks before new queens are produced, thus
ensuring that ample drones will be available to mate with emerging queens. Their day is
typically divided between periods of eating and resting, and patrolling mating sites known as
drone congregation areas. Drone production will cease in the late summer, as the quantity of
available food declines. Before winter, the drones are usually driven out of the hive by workers,
who guard against their return. A colony that has lost its queen may develop laying workers,
who can produce only drones. When this occurs, the colony is effectively doomed. The
production of many drones, therefore, will be their final effort to pass on the colony's genetic
line by mating with a virgin queen from another colony.