The queen bee is the continuer of the entire bee genus. It is easy to recognize - it is twice as large as the other inhabitants of the hive. In each bee colony there is only one uterus - the queen of the hive does not tolerate competition. Having killed all the other bees with her sting, she becomes the only egg producer.
Description and features of the queen bee
The queen bee reaches a length of 2-2.5 cm - this is 1.5-2 times larger than the size of a working bee. Features of the external and internal structure:
- The body is elongated. The shape is torpedo-shaped. The abdomen is much longer than the wings.
- The size of the eyes is smaller than that of other residents of the hive.
- The internal structure differs in only one nuance - it has well-developed ovaries.
- The bee has a sting, which she, unlike other bees, can use repeatedly, without prejudice to her life.
By nature, the “Queen Mother” is phlegmatic, she moves slowly and almost never leaves the hive. She flies only in two cases - for mating and when swarming.
Swarming - the flight of sexually mature bees during which the colony divides. A group of bees is separated from the family along with the uterus. Swarm fishing is a difficult task, so beekeepers try to prevent this process.
Uterus are:
- Infertile - those that did not mate with males. They weigh less than fetal - 170-220 mg. Compared with the fertilized uterus, they move faster.
- Fruitful - females become them after mating, which occurs during mating. The weight of the fetal uterus is 180-330 mg.
The value of the queen bee depends on her oviparous abilities. From a good little bee manages to get at least 2 thousand eggs. Fertilized eggs are a source of working bees and future queens, drones hatch from unfertilized eggs.
The female lives about five years. But her reproductive abilities weaken after two years. Her oviposition is becoming more modest in volume. In addition, the farther, the more drones that come out of them than labor. This leads to a weakening of the bee family, honey blanks fall. To prevent this from happening, beekeepers do not keep their queens in the hive for more than two years - they are replaced with new ones.
Role in the bee family
The whole life of the swarm revolves around the queen bee - it is looked after, fed. The queen does not eat honey, but a special diet rich in proteins and lipids - royal jelly. The bee reigns in the family alone. The emerging rival is immediately destroyed by the tsarina herself or her "subjects."
The functions of the uterus in the hive:
- egg-laying;
- maintaining order in the hive;
- family unification.
Ultimately, the productivity of the bee family depends on the uterus.
According to scientists, a certain behavior of bees and their physiological behavior is the merit of a bee. Thanks to the pheromones secreted by the uterus, all bees in the family smell the same. By smell, insects distinguish their own from strangers.
Types of bees
By the method of excretion, several types of queen bees are distinguished. The beekeeper has nothing to do with the appearance of swarm and fistulous uterus - they appear naturally. But the removal of the uterus of a quiet shift, a person can, if necessary, provoke.
Swarm
The bee family resorts to the removal of the swarm uterus if the number of young growth exceeds the "vacancy" in the hive. This usually happens between late May and mid-July. When swarm bowls appear, the beekeeper can notice preparations for swarming - their bees lay on the ribs of honeycombs. Read here how to prevent swarming.
The family, having laid swarm queen cells, ceases to grow larvae, and does not build a honeycomb. In the first swarm that flew out, there was an old uterus, which had lost its former egg production. The volume of her ovaries decreases, her weight also, so she can fly (when the uterus lays eggs, she is not able to fly).
In the swarm mother liquor there are cells with future bees. There can be several swarms. As soon as the young bee leaves the queen cell, the next swarm is ready to leave the hive along with the infertile uterus. When the swarming ends, the bees, removing the mother liquors, begin to do the usual things.
A swarm uterus that leaves the cell flies on the third day. She makes several sorties, and each time she moves farther away from the hive. The bee-catcher remembers the locality, the hive, its location - so that after mating, return to its native hive. The flyby can last several minutes or several hours.
Rescue or fistulous
If the bee dies, the bees quickly detect a loss - a loud buzz similar to a howl rises. Insects drop everything and rush in search of the queen. Realizing that the uterus has irrevocably disappeared, the bees promptly begin to grow a new mistress of the hive. They begin to feed the larvae exclusively with royal jelly. Ordinary larvae get it for only two days, and then they are fed with a mixture of honey and bee bread.
After 16 days of feeding, approximately two dozen queens are excreted. The first thing they do is kill each other with stings. Only one must remain - the strongest. Uterus excreted in a similar way are called fistulous. Their disadvantage is the low level of oviposition. Beekeepers usually replace fistulous uterus with swarm or silent shift bees.
Fistulous uterus develops in cells too small (5.5 mm in diameter), and not in special spacious mother cells (9 mm in diameter). You can "thin out" the larvae by combining neighboring cells, but this is extremely time-consuming - the beekeeper rarely does this.
Quiet shift
The old queen is quietly, without too much noise and stress for the bee family, preparing herself a replacement. Having laid an egg in a special cell, the uterus continues a quiet life, and the bees continue to do normal activities.
After 16 days, a new “queen” of the hive appears. Without a doubt, she immediately kills her parent. Withdrawal of the uterus of a quiet shift occurs in two cases:
- the situation is provoked by the beekeeper;
- the bee is old or sick.
Uterus of a quiet shift are of high quality - these are the most worthy mistresses of the hive.
What breeds are there?
Beekeepers can plant bees of a certain breed in the hive. In the post-Soviet space, Central Russian and Carpathian queen bees are especially popular. The choice of breed depends on the characteristics of the local climate and honey collection.
Central Russian
Beekeepers choose this breed more often than others. The weight of the bee is 210 mg. Advantages of Central Russian bees:
- unpretentious and undemanding to care;
- resistant to disease;
- productive - the uterus is highly egg-laying, and the working bees are industrious;
- not prone to swarming;
- Immune to low temperatures - able to stay in the winter house for up to seven months.
The disadvantage of the breed is that the bees are charged to collect honey from only one specific honey plant.
Read more about bees of the Central Russian breed here.
Ukrainian
The same hardworking as the Central Russian bees. The weight of the fetal uterus is 200 mg. Features of the breed:
- moderately calm and non-aggressive character;
- well guard the hive from thief bees;
- high frost resistance;
- high fertility of the uterus;
- not prone to swarming;
- take nectar only on honey plants with a high sugar content;
- resistant to disease.
Buckfast
Bakfast is bred mainly in Belarus and Ukraine. The weight of the bee is 260 mg. This is a productive breed, the uterus can lay a huge number of eggs, so their families are always numerous and do not experience a lack of “working hands”.
It is advantageous to start backfasting at a considerable distance from the honey collection from the apiary. This breed is distinguished by its ability to fly long distances. For nectar, the backfasts are ready to go "to the ends of the world."
The disadvantage of the breed is its susceptibility to low temperatures. It is not recommended to breed it not only in the northern latitudes, but even in the middle zone of Russia.
Carpathian
Carpathian breed bred in Ukraine. The weight of the bee is up to 205 g. Features of the breed:
- unpretentiousness;
- resistance to cold;
- can collect honey in the rain;
- honey has a low sugar content;
- oviposition lasts not only in spring and summer, but also in autumn - a large family needs food.
Gray mountain caucasian
The gray mountain Caucasian breed of bees is distributed, as the name implies, in the Caucasus and its foothills. Uterus weight - up to 200 g. Advantages of the breed:
- high immunity;
- non-aggressive against the beekeeper;
- low% swarm;
- high frost resistance;
- collect nectar from any, even the weakest honey plants.
Disadvantages - steal honey, do not tolerate long winters and poorly build honeycombs.
Life cycle
If the bee family does not have fetal eggs, inevitable death awaits her - as the bees are deprived of the opportunity to grow a new parent. In order for the family to find a “queen”, the hives undergo such stages of development of the bee:
- Sowing eggs. An old bee lays an egg in a bowl attached to a honeycomb. Here the most important larva in the hive will grow and develop.
- Removal of the uterus from the fetal egg (from the infertile hatch).
- When the larva hatched, it is intensely fed with royal jelly. The mother liquor is pulled out of the bowl, and on the seventh day it is sealed. But before you seal the mother liquor, they put food in it - royal jelly.
- The larva, feeding on milk, turns into a chrysalis, and then into the uterus. On the 16th day of her “imprisonment”, the future mistress of the hive gnaws the mother liquor and leaves it free.
It is most convenient for beekeepers collecting royal jelly for sale from sealed mother liquors.
It’s good for beekeepers to know:
- The darker the lower part of the queen cell, the older it is.
- The uterus, which came out first, will destroy all the remaining mother cells.
- By controlling the queen cells and the exit of the queens, it is possible to prevent swarming and guess the time of departure of the swarm.
The stages and features of the development of bees are in table 1.
Table 1
Day | Development stage |
1-2 | the egg is laid in a bowl |
3-6 | the larva hatched and actively eats royal jelly |
7 | sealed mother liquor |
8-12 | the larva sits in the queen cell and prepares to become a chrysalis |
13-16 | is in a state of pupa |
17 | barren bee exit |
Fetal uterus live up to 5 years, but usually they change to young after 2 years. If the uterus does not fly around, the hive will be filled with drone sowing, and the family will die. The tinder must be removed in time and planted in the ovum.
Pairing
The uterus that emerged from the queen cells is divided into the fetal and the first. The uterus becomes fertile after a weekly flyby, during which mating with drones occurs.
The queen bee is ready to mate with a drone on the 7th day after leaving the mother liquor. If mating does not occur in a month, the uterus will go into the category of drone - its eggs are unfertilized, only drones will emerge from them.
In order for the working bees and drones to appear in the family, fertilized and drone eggs are needed, respectively - only the fetal uterus can lay them. First, the cells under the working bees are completely filled with eggs, and only then the drone ovipositor begins.
If there is a lot of food, a new uterus can lay up to 2 thousand eggs per day. Oviposition weight may be equal to its weight. The uterus will lay about 150,000 eggs during the season. The uterus carefully examines all the cells in which it lays eggs. If a cell has some defects, for example, uneven or dirty, it passes it and goes to another cell.
The uterus eats every half hour. During this time, she is able to lay up to 50 eggs.
Feeding and wintering of queens
If during the swarming there is an overabundance of queens, then in the spring they are often not enough - it is rather difficult to keep them, because only one “queen mother” lives in the family. Usually, uterus is destroyed before hibernation, because their wintering is expensive - to save them in the nucleus, you have to spend honey.
Today, a cost-effective way of wintering has been invented, which allows you to save the bees. But it is suitable only for the southern regions of the country.
Wintering features:
- For the maintenance of uterus, special wooden cages are used. Their size is 80x80x80 mm. The cage is ventilated thanks to slots. Two cells are placed in the cage with a size of 60-76 mm. One is empty, the second is with honey. They are attached in the cell with tape.
- Honey has been stocked since the summer. Having sanitized and cut the light brown sushi into weaving, they are glued over the edges with tape. They put in a nesting frame and give a good family - so that they fill it with honey, and then they seal it.
- In the fall, a uterus is placed in a cage from a nucleus, and a hundred bees accompany it.
- The cells are placed in a warm room - on the shelves. The temperature should not go out of the range + 17- + 20 ° С.
- When half of the bees remain in the cells, the “escort” is changed to bees from an ordinary family gathered for wintering. But first, they are exposed to the action of cold - placed in a box, and left on the street - there should be at least minus 5 ° C. And not higher than + 6 ° C. Under the cage with a wintering uterus, a cage with “seasoned” bees is placed. A paper sheet with a hole in the center is placed between the cells - the bees make their way through it to the uterus left for the winter. A cell with a uterus and bees is closed. From time to time, food is put into the cage - honeycombs with honey.
How are uterus removed?
The uterus is grown in parallel with the drones, which will be needed for fertilization. Rules that are useful to know when breeding bees:
- Good honey collection is the key to a prolific uterus.
- The best will be a uterus grown from a large, not a small larva.
- For breeding use larvae, whose lifetime is 12 hours.
There are two options for the withdrawal of uterus - natural and artificial. With the natural hatching, the bees build a queen cell, in which the old bee lays an egg.
There are two artificial technologies:
- The bee and open brood are removed from the hive. Only fresh eggs and larvae are left in it. Honeycombs must be cut from below - then individuals capable of breeding will hatch from eggs. Embedded mother liquors are placed in the hives, and the uterus is returned to its original place.
- The second option is more complicated, so it is rarely used. The essence of the method is to place the larvae in wax bags. Here they are intensely fed with royal jelly. But it is precisely this technology that allows the introduction of the most prolific queens.
Drone uterus
Bees that lay only unfertilized eggs, from which exclusively drones are hatched, are called drones. Such factors can provoke the appearance of tindering:
- Unfavorable weather, due to which flight and fertilization did not take place.
- Damage to the wings.
- The uterus appeared too early - before the drones.
Not only a young, but also an old uterus can become a tinder-tube - due to illness, exhaustion of the ovaries, damage to the receptacle. If the drone uterus is not replaced on time, the bee family will die.
Uterus replanting
If you remove the old uterus from the hive, the bees, looking for it for a while, begin to breed a new one. But it is not necessary to rely on the natural course of events. Beekeepers often plant the uterus, ordering it in a special hatchery. Then the bee will be 100% quality.
For replanting a new uterus, a special cage is usually used. A bee planted in it, and then placed in a hive. The old uterus is previously removed from the hive. Osirotev, the bee family willingly accepts “replanting."
When is it time for a bee to change?
It does not make sense to keep a bee, even a varietal one, in the hive for more than two years. Advantages of young queens:
- large oviposition;
- overwinter easier and die less often;
- more responsive to anti-war activities.
The more eggs the uterus lays, the faster its body will fail.Some “producers” of eggs have to be replaced in a year. Best of all, a bee family takes a new bee in periods:
- biological maturity;
- active honey collection.
During the honey collection, most of the working bees are busy, and the young growth quite calmly accepts the new mistress of the hive. But at a time when biological development is not yet completed, and the family is strong, the bees are extremely unfriendly - and replanting should not be done.
The easiest process is replanting in August or early September. In late autumn, replanting is not recommended; it is necessary that the family prepare for wintering with a young uterus.
When replacing the uterus in the fall, there is a short break in the egg laying. It is important that this break does not affect honey collection:
- If the honey collection is short, the uterus is planted a week before the collection.
- If the honey collection is long (more than a month), it is better to do the replacement 2-3 weeks after the completion of the collection.
An unplanned replacement of the uterus may be necessary if it becomes ill, gets injured or it is not good to lay eggs. Experienced beekeepers are not advised to change the queens in families who have come to a swarm mood, or have laid the queen cells of the “silent shift”.
Deviations in the development of queen bees
During the development of the uterus, various deviations can be observed. For example, the standard period for the maturation of the uterus in the mother liquor may change - drag out or, conversely, come several hours earlier. This happens under the influence of the microclimate in the hive.
It happens that the uterus leaves the queen cell with a deviation per day from the usual period. Beekeepers believe that the temperature regime is to blame.
Other reasons for exit delay:
- weak bee colonies or layering - it is not possible to create proper climatic conditions in the hive;
- sowing period has come later - the female makes a mating flight only in favorable weather;
- the influence of the beekeeper - if within 10 days before leaving the mother liquor the bees are disturbed, the breeding fly will be postponed;
- if the bee family prepares for swarming, mating will also be rescheduled.
Theoretically, the uterus develops 26 days. But in fact, due to the delay of the stages, the development time may increase to 30 or more days.
Useful information
Anyone who wants to control life in the hives and the entire apiary should appreciate the importance of the ancestors of the bee family. What else is good to know about bees:
- Unlike working bees, on the legs of the “queen” there are no “baskets” for pollen.
- To breed a large individual - weighing about 200 g, the cells must have a height of 2.2 cm.
- Different bees can be hatched from the same eggs laid by the uterus - this is due to differences in nutrition during development. Milk, which feeds drones, working bees and queens varies in protein, sugar, vitamins, minerals. Uterine larvae get milk, in which a lower level of protein, drones are fed with a high-protein feed.
- The uterus that emerges from the nest does not touch the royal jelly that remains there. After leaving the cell, they are able to remain without food for 16 hours. If the cell is filled with milk, this is a sure sign that the female will be prolific.
- The uterus, the first to leave the cell, kills the rivals, because the instinct of self-preservation tells her so. She gnaws at the queen cells and launches her poisonous sting. But even if the uterus does not do this, the "subjects" themselves will deal with her rivals.
- The weight of the uterus can vary. It decreases during periods of mating and swarming. The maximum weight loss is 15 and 20 mg in an infertile and fertilized female, respectively.
- The larger the female, the more fertile she is, and the stronger her offspring.
- Ideal conditions for mating occur between 2:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. If it rains or the temperature drops below 19 ° C, flying is delayed.
- For productive work, the uterus needs special conditions, including food reserves in the hive - 2-3 kg of beef and 8-10 kg of honey.
- Active oviposition occurs on day 10-14.
- Studies have shown that the uterus mates during a flyby with more than one drone. Half of the uterus fly 2-3 times, and have a “relationship” with 5-10 drones. One can distinguish a fetal female returning to the hive by a white clot covering the end of the sting - this is a substance secreted by the male.
- It happens that the uterus mates late in the fall, delaying egg laying until spring. This can happen if the autumn is warm, and the temperature has established more than 23 degrees Celsius.
- The eggs of one female may vary in size. In June - before the main medical collection, they weigh 0.13 mg, in July - 0.14 mg, in August - 0.16 mg. Young females lay larger eggs than old ones.
The well-being of the bee family and the income of the beekeeper directly depend on the quality of the bee, her health, her ability to manage her family and her egg-laying abilities. By timely seating and replacing the uterus, losses in honey collection can be avoided.
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