Bees are one of the most useful insects, because theyextract honey. For many centuries, this product has not ceased to be in demand, and beekeeping is developing. In order for these insects to work well and bring as many delicacies as loved by many, it is necessary to know what a bee eats.
Bee food
It is known that the duties of insects living inhive, separated. Some individuals produce honey and supply their family with food, others feed offspring and keep order. Each bee has its own diet, which must be followed in order to work correctly in the hive. They should get enough carbohydrates, proteins and lipids.
Of course, answering the question about what eatsbee, the first product can be called honey. It depends on its quality how insects survive the winter and whether it will survive it at all. In the summer, you need to take care that the plants from which they collect a treat, contain as little as possible carbohydrates such as sucrose and glucose. The fact is that these organic compounds accelerate the process of crystallization of honey. Even collecting a sufficient amount of it, the bees can die of starvation due to the fact that their food has turned into crystals. The plants in which the nectar contains the highest amount of glucose and sucrose, include sunflower, cotton, heather, mustard, rapeseed and rape.
With a shortage of honey, bees can become moresusceptible to various viruses, their immunity weakens, dozens of individuals die. If possible, you should refrain from replacing the natural product with an artificial one. However, if there is no other way out, then carbohydrates such as sucrose, glucose or fructose are used.
How to save honey?
Speaking about what the bee eats, it is impossible not to mention ways to reduce the crystallization of honey:
- Be sure to have a large amount of water in the hive.
- Before winter, you should clean the hive from last year's treats. If there are still sugar crystals obtained from the harvest of the previous year, it is urgent to get rid of them.
- It is important to maintain a constant temperature. The process of crystallization of honey slows down if the temperature drops below thirteen degrees or rises above fourteen.
Food worker bees
As mentioned earlier, the hive is clearly separated.duties of all individuals. The task of the working bees is to extract honey and bring it into the house. As a rule, they are females, but they never produce offspring.
Speaking of what the worker bee eats,say that her diet should include those foods that give a large amount of energy. Being larvae, future female workers receive as many nutrients as other individuals who will perform no less important functions.
What bee eats at the beginning of its development?The nurses are delivered to the cells with the larvae of milk, and then, when the young bees grow up, their diet changes: now it consists of a mixture of honey, pollen and necessarily water.
When a larva becomes a bee, it will immediatelyproceeds to perform simple tasks, for example, cleans the hive. In the first three days of life, glands are formed, which feed the young, and at this time the insect feeds on food that it takes from other bees. And on the fourth day, she independently produces her own food. As she grows older and stronger, she gradually examines the area around the swarm and soon extracts nectar.
Eating a Bee's Uterus
What feeds the queen bee?The individual that reproduces offspring consumes large quantities of royal milk, which contains the substances necessary for its vital activity. Bees bring nectar to the hive, from which a substance containing proteins and lipids is released. It is the uterus of the bee that feeds on it.
During the laying of eggs for feeding the uterusnot only worker bees, which bring nectar to the hive, but also others, who extract food especially for the female, are watching. When swarming occurs, the female consumes simpler food — ordinary honey.
Bee drone feeding
People who live on everything ready and notwork, compared with the drones. These bees, however, perform a very important function in the swarm - they fertilize the uterus. As a rule, after the end of the pairing, the drone dies, but this does not always happen.
Еще находясь в состоянии личинки, самцы consume more food than females. The diet of the drone includes honey and nectar. Most often, they do not extract it on their own and feed on what workers bees bring. If they cannot find food in a swarm or hive, they fly out in search of food and independently search for flowers. By the way, at these moments the drones are especially defenseless: they cannot defend themselves against the attack of any insects and birds, since they lack a sting.
As you can see, the bee drone eats,tell quite simple. In addition, it is possible to supplement this information with the fact that the males, as a rule, live in such summer months, when honey is especially abundant and is enough to feed all members of the swarm.
