Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Infraclass: Neoptera
Super order: Endopterygota
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Family: Apidae
Subfamily: Apinae
Tribe: Apini
Thursday, November 26, 2009
EFFECT OF DEFORESTATION ON HONEY BEES:
Earlier honey bees use to build their hives on tree tops but today they have shifted themselves to human dominated areas. This is because they don’t find their natural habitat i.e. they don’t find trees. Deforestation has led to this change. Hence honey bees have been deeply affected by deforestation. Thus the honey bees have come to buildings to build their hives. When they come to these buildings, they are often destroyed by humans to protect themselves from the stings of bees. If this is going to happen then the entire species of honey bees will be destroyed one day or the other. Thus we can infer that deforestation has led to the great destruction of honeybees.
In our field work, we visited many human dominated areas to enquire people how they feel when any comb is built in their house. We got 99% negative answer. They said that they would destroy it as soon as they saw a new hive. People are afraid of their dangerous stings. They are also eliminated from some farms and gardens. But the real fact is that honey bees can pollinate more number of flowers than any other insects. In Cuddalore, honey bees built their hives in KNC, St. Josephs College and even in our school. But all these hives were destroyed within a matter of few seconds. We have also made a note of different sites of destruction in and around cuddalore
In our field work, we visited many human dominated areas to enquire people how they feel when any comb is built in their house. We got 99% negative answer. They said that they would destroy it as soon as they saw a new hive. People are afraid of their dangerous stings. They are also eliminated from some farms and gardens. But the real fact is that honey bees can pollinate more number of flowers than any other insects. In Cuddalore, honey bees built their hives in KNC, St. Josephs College and even in our school. But all these hives were destroyed within a matter of few seconds. We have also made a note of different sites of destruction in and around cuddalore
CARBON SEQUESTRATION: -
The process of trapping carbon from the atmosphere is called as carbon sequestration.
Honey bees build their hives by trapping carbon from the atmosphere. The main composition of bee wax is C40 and C46. This can be easily obtained from the atmosphere by honey bees.
When bees build many hives then the carbon dioxide intensity will be reduced.
This bee wax can be used in the factories’ chimneys to reduce the intensity of CO2 expelled. This bee wax can be used as filters in chimneys and thereby it can really control air pollution.
It can also be used to coat the false ceilings like asbestos, thermo Cole etc. If it is done so then the room temperature will be reduced naturally. Thus the air conditioners are not required if this method is followed. As a result the emissions of Chloro fluoro carbons (CFC), Hydro Chloro fluoro carbons (HCFC) will be decreased which is causing the ozone depletion.
Honey bees build their hives by trapping carbon from the atmosphere. The main composition of bee wax is C40 and C46. This can be easily obtained from the atmosphere by honey bees.
When bees build many hives then the carbon dioxide intensity will be reduced.
This bee wax can be used in the factories’ chimneys to reduce the intensity of CO2 expelled. This bee wax can be used as filters in chimneys and thereby it can really control air pollution.
It can also be used to coat the false ceilings like asbestos, thermo Cole etc. If it is done so then the room temperature will be reduced naturally. Thus the air conditioners are not required if this method is followed. As a result the emissions of Chloro fluoro carbons (CFC), Hydro Chloro fluoro carbons (HCFC) will be decreased which is causing the ozone depletion.
Bee Swarms 2009
turned out to be a typical year for bee swarms as we received just about 20 swarm calls this year. No great pictures this year as it seemed most swarm calls came in during the day when I was working.
Last year was extremely crazy with bee swarms and you can read about 2008 below.
2008 is turning out to be our busiest year for collecting swarms in well over 10 years. It's July 1st and we've collected 15 swarms. In 2007, we only had 4 the entire year. After speaking with other beekeepers around the U.S. many are just like us - running out of equipment to house them in. In addition to our honey business, we are busy building and maintaining beehives of our own. Below are some pictures from swarms we've collected.
This first one was just collected in June 2008 at a nursing home in our town. They were cutting down a large Maple Tree when they were surprised at what they found! After the tree hit the ground bees starting buzzing:) Glenn took his chain saw and had to cut the tree open to expose them.
He then took the parts of the tree and shook many bees into the hive.
After shaking lots of bees into the new hive, he then started to remove the chunks of comb honey which were within the tree. We were lucky and found the queen bee pretty quickly and placed her into the new hive which makes it a bunch easier to get the other bees to follow her into the hive. After he got the bees off the honey comb and into the hive, he placed the honey comb into buckets with lids.
After he is done removing the comb and cleaning out the inside of the tree, he will place a hive body directly above where the bees were and leave this here overnight. The temperatures were pretty hot and in the mid 80's late into the evening. During the night particularly if it is cold outside the bees will find their way into this new hive by the scent of the queen. We then went and picked up the new hive around 5am before the bees started to fly and brought it back to one of our bee yards.
Glenn will place a lid on the bee hive and leave it here until the night time giving all the bees time to find their new home. We also placed sticks from the bottom of the tree up to the bee hive allowing bees to simply walk up to their new house.
The pictures below show our previous swarms we've captured. Below is an interesting swarm that happened in our own yard. We had 2 hives next to each other and one was empty. We were about to move the empty hive down below on our property and place it out to try and capture a swarm. All of a sudden we heard an incredible buzzing sound and looked out to see bees everywhere. The bees from 1 hive swarmed and took up "house" right next door in the empty hive.
I ran out and stood in the middle of the swarm and captured some pictures. These pictures are not even close to showing all the bees that were flying. What a "rush" that was and we wish all swarms were this easy to capture.
Some of these pictures I kept pretty large so you can see the swarm.
Notice all the bees flying in the area.
The hive on the right swarmed to the hive on the left.
You can see bees if you look at the pines and all the little "debris" flying in the air are honey bees. Also below picture shows this some.
This is another close up - we walked right up to the hives and what a sight, we were surrounded by thousands of bees, tried to get my video camera (battery dead!) out and will try to get a small movie clip on the website if I can catch one while they're circling overhead. It's an amazing sight!
Swarm on May 19th, 2005
We were waiting for one of our hives to swarm and thought it had. We learned after we caught the swarm that this one came from a tree that had become the home to some of our bees last year from a swarm.
The swarm came from the The bees swarmed from the tree
center hole in this tree. & ended up in this small tree area.
Glenn starts to trim the area around the swarm to be able to cut the branch holding the swarm. This branch will then be placed inside a new hive box which is shown below. We'll leave the bees here until nightfall to make sure we get most of the bees. Then we'll move them to their new location
2009
Last year was extremely crazy with bee swarms and you can read about 2008 below.
2008 is turning out to be our busiest year for collecting swarms in well over 10 years. It's July 1st and we've collected 15 swarms. In 2007, we only had 4 the entire year. After speaking with other beekeepers around the U.S. many are just like us - running out of equipment to house them in. In addition to our honey business, we are busy building and maintaining beehives of our own. Below are some pictures from swarms we've collected.
This first one was just collected in June 2008 at a nursing home in our town. They were cutting down a large Maple Tree when they were surprised at what they found! After the tree hit the ground bees starting buzzing:) Glenn took his chain saw and had to cut the tree open to expose them.
He then took the parts of the tree and shook many bees into the hive.
After shaking lots of bees into the new hive, he then started to remove the chunks of comb honey which were within the tree. We were lucky and found the queen bee pretty quickly and placed her into the new hive which makes it a bunch easier to get the other bees to follow her into the hive. After he got the bees off the honey comb and into the hive, he placed the honey comb into buckets with lids.
After he is done removing the comb and cleaning out the inside of the tree, he will place a hive body directly above where the bees were and leave this here overnight. The temperatures were pretty hot and in the mid 80's late into the evening. During the night particularly if it is cold outside the bees will find their way into this new hive by the scent of the queen. We then went and picked up the new hive around 5am before the bees started to fly and brought it back to one of our bee yards.
Glenn will place a lid on the bee hive and leave it here until the night time giving all the bees time to find their new home. We also placed sticks from the bottom of the tree up to the bee hive allowing bees to simply walk up to their new house.
The pictures below show our previous swarms we've captured. Below is an interesting swarm that happened in our own yard. We had 2 hives next to each other and one was empty. We were about to move the empty hive down below on our property and place it out to try and capture a swarm. All of a sudden we heard an incredible buzzing sound and looked out to see bees everywhere. The bees from 1 hive swarmed and took up "house" right next door in the empty hive.
I ran out and stood in the middle of the swarm and captured some pictures. These pictures are not even close to showing all the bees that were flying. What a "rush" that was and we wish all swarms were this easy to capture.
Some of these pictures I kept pretty large so you can see the swarm.
Notice all the bees flying in the area.
The hive on the right swarmed to the hive on the left.
You can see bees if you look at the pines and all the little "debris" flying in the air are honey bees. Also below picture shows this some.
This is another close up - we walked right up to the hives and what a sight, we were surrounded by thousands of bees, tried to get my video camera (battery dead!) out and will try to get a small movie clip on the website if I can catch one while they're circling overhead. It's an amazing sight!
Swarm on May 19th, 2005
We were waiting for one of our hives to swarm and thought it had. We learned after we caught the swarm that this one came from a tree that had become the home to some of our bees last year from a swarm.
The swarm came from the The bees swarmed from the tree
center hole in this tree. & ended up in this small tree area.
Glenn starts to trim the area around the swarm to be able to cut the branch holding the swarm. This branch will then be placed inside a new hive box which is shown below. We'll leave the bees here until nightfall to make sure we get most of the bees. Then we'll move them to their new location
I ran out and stood in the middle of the swarm and captured some pictures. These pictures are not even close to showing all the bees that were flying. What a "rush" that was and we wish all swarms were this easy to capture.
Some of these pictures I kept pretty large so you can see the swarm.
Notice all the bees flying in the area.
The hive on the right swarmed to the hive on the left.
You can see bees if you look at the pines and all the little "debris" flying in the air are honey bees. Also below picture shows this some.
This is another close up - we walked right up to the hives and what a sight, we were surrounded by thousands of bees, tried to get my video camera (battery dead!) out and will try to get a small movie clip on the website if I can catch one while they're circling overhead. It's an amazing sight!
Swarm on May 19th, 2005
We were waiting for one of our hives to swarm and thought it had. We learned after we caught the swarm that this one came from a tree that had become the home to some of our bees last year from a swarm.
The swarm came from the The bees swarmed from the tree
center hole in this tree. & ended up in this small tree area.
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2009More about Honey Bees
More about Honey Bees
Reproduction and Development
The queen controls the sex of her offspring. When an egg passes from her ovary to her oviduct, the queen determines whether the egg is fertilized with sperm from the spermatheca. A fertilized egg develops into a female honey bee, either worker or queen, and an unfertilized egg becomes a male honey bee, or drone. The queen lays the eggs that will develop into more queens in specially constructed downward-pointing, peanut-shaped cells, in which the egg adheres to the ceiling. These cells are filled with royal jelly to keep the larvae from falling and to feed them.
Worker bees are raised in the multi-purpose, horizontally arranged cells of the comb. Future workers receive royal jelly only during the first two days, compared to future queens, who are fed royal jelly throughout their larval life. This difference accounts for the great variation in anatomy and function between adult workers and queens. On average, the development of the queen from egg to adult requires 16 days; that of the worker, 21 days; and that of the drone, 24 days.
Activities
Field honey bees collect flower nectar. On entering the hive with a full honey sac, which is an enlargement of the esophagus, the field bee regurgitates the contents into the mouth of a young worker, called the house, or nurse, bee. The house bee deposits the nectar in a cell and carries out the tasks necessary to convert the nectar to honey. When the honey is fully ripened, the cell is sealed with an airtight wax capping. Both old and young workers are required to store the winter supplies of honey.
Pollen is carried into the nest or hive on the hind legs of the field bees and placed directly in the cells. The pollen of a given load is derived mostly from plants of one species, which accounts for the honey bee's outstanding role as pollinator. If it flew from one flower species to another, it would not be effective in the transfer of pollen, but by confining its visits on a given trip to the blossoms of a single species, it provides the cross-pollination required in many varieties of plants.
Communication
An amazing symbolic communication system exists among honey bees. In studies of bees begun in the early 1900s, the Austrian zoologist Karl von Frisch determined many of the details of their means of communication. In a classic paper published in 1923, von Frisch described how after a field bee discovers a new source of food, such as a field in bloom, she fills her honey sac with nectar, returns to the nest or hive, and performs a vigorous but highly standardized dance. If the new source of food is within about 90 m (about 295 ft) of the nest or hive, the bee performs a circular dance, first moving about 2 cm (about .75 in) or more, and then circling in the opposite direction. Numerous bees in the nest or hive closely follow the dancer, imitating her movements. During this ceremony, the other workers scent the fragrance of the flowers from which the dancer collected the nectar. Having learned that food is not far from the nest or hive, and what it smells like, the other bees leave the nest or hive and fly in widening circles until they find the source.
If the new source of nectar or pollen is farther away, the discoverer performs a more elaborate dance characterized by intermittent movement across the diameter of the circle and constant, vigorous wagging of her abdomen. Every movement of this dance seems to have significance. The number of times the bee circles during a given interval informs the other bees how far to fly for the food. Movement across the diameter in a straight run indicates the direction of the food source. If the straight run is upward, the source is directly toward the sun. Should the straight run be downward, it signifies that the bees may reach the food by flying with their backs to the sun. In the event the straight run veers off at an angle to the vertical, the bees must follow a course to the right or left of the sun at the same angle that the straight run deviates from the vertical.
Bees under observation in a glass hive demonstrate their instructions so clearly that it is possible for trained observers to understand the directions given by the dancers. Certain aspects of the dance language, such as how attendant bees perceive the motion of dancers in the total darkness of the nest or hive, are still unknown. The dance language is an important survival strategy that has helped the honey bee in its success as a species.
Problems of Survival
Honey bees are subject to various diseases and parasites. American and European foulbrood are two widespread contagious bacterial diseases that attack bee larvae. A protozoan parasite, Nosema, and a virus cause dysentery and paralysis in adult bees. Two species of blood-sucking parasitic mites are particularly troublesome for beekeepers and are currently affecting wild honey bees worldwide.
The honey bee tracheal mite lives in the breathing tubes of adult bees; the varroa mite lives on the outside of larvae and adults. These mites have killed tens of thousands of honey bee colonies in North America during the past ten years. Scientific breeding programs are attempting to develop tolerant strains of domestic honey bees to replace the mite-susceptible ones currently used. Tracheal mite infestations can be reduced by fumigation of the hive with menthol fumes. Varroa mites are controlled with a miticide or, in some European countries, with fumes of formic acid. Certain hive management techniques also can reduce infestations.
Many other animals prey upon individual honey bees, which may sometimes weaken colonies. Examples are cane toads and bee eaters (birds), which pick off foragers near the colony entrance; robber flies, which take individual foragers as they visit flowers; and hornets and bee wolves (wasps), which may enter the nest or hive and steal larvae. Bears have an insatiable appetite for honey and bee larvae and may destroy many nests or hives in a single raid.
Honey bee colonies used in commercial pollination and those kept in urban areas are exposed to pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers, and other agricultural chemicals and are frequently poisoned by accident. This is a major concern of modern beekeepers.
Importance
Honey bees have become the primary source of pollination for approximately one-fourth of all crops produced in the United States and some other countries. The value of the crops that rely on such pollination has been estimated as high as billion annually in the United States. Examples of fruit crops that rely on honey bees are almonds, apples, apricots, avocados, blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupes, cherries, cranberries, cucumbers, pears, raspberries, strawberries and watermelons. The seeds of many vegetables are also produced with honey bee pollination; examples include alfalfa, asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, clover, cotton, cucumbers, onions, radishes, squash, sweet clover, and turnips.
Many species of wild pollinators have disappeared from the land as their habitats have been destroyed or altered by humans. The honey bee has taken over as pollinator of many of the wild plants that remain; its ecological value in this regard is tremendous.
Honey bees are the sole source of honey and beeswax, a fine wax with unusual qualities. Honey bees also produce propolis, a gummy substance made from tree sap that has antibacterial properties, and royal jelly and pollen for human consumption. Honey bee venom is extracted for the production of antivenom therapy and is being investigated as a treatment for several serious diseases of the muscles, connective tissue, and immune system, including multiple sclerosis and arthritis.
Scientific classification
Honey bees comprise the genus Apis in the family Apidae, order Hymenoptera. The European honey bee is classified as Apis mellifera, the Indian honey bee is A. cerana, Koschevnikov's honey bee is A. koschevnikovi, the dwarf honey bee is A. florea, the andreniform dwarf honey bee is A. andreniformis, the giant honey bee is A. dorsata, and the mountain giant honey bee is A. laboriosa. The Italian race of the European honey bee is A. m. ligustica, the Carniolan race is A. m. carnica, and the Caucasian race is A. m. causcasia.
Honeycomb
A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal wax cells built by commercial and wild honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen.
Beekeepers may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey. Honey bees consume about 8.4 pounds of honey to secrete one pound of wax,[1] so it makes economic sense to return the wax to the hive after harvesting the honey, commonly called "pulling honey" or "robbing the bees" by beekeepers. The structure of the comb may be left basically intact when honey is extracted from it by uncapping and spinning in a centrifugal machine—the honey extractor. Fresh, new comb is sometimes sold and used intact as comb honey, especially if the honey is being spread on bread rather than used in cooking or to sweeten tea.
Broodcomb becomes dark over time, because of the cocoons embedded in the cells and the tracking of many feet, called travel stain by beekeepers when seen on frames of comb honey. Honeycomb in the "supers" that are not allowed to be used for brood (e.g. by the placement of a queen excluder) stays light coloured.
Numerous wasps, especially polistinae and vespinae, construct hexagonal prism packed combs made of paper instead of wax; and in some species (like Brachygastra mellifica), honey is stored in the nest, thus technically forming a paper honeycomb. However, the term "honeycomb" is not often used for such structures.
"Getting hands on a queen bee is mail-order easy. Bee breeders send them in a cage to beekeepers, who place the captive in a queenless hive. During the two days it takes the hive's residents to eat through the cage's candy plug, they grow accustomed to the scent of their new leader. Upon liberation, the queen begins laying eggs in the hive's hexagonal cells. Three weeks later, worker bees emerge."
Honeybee ,Fast Facts(NGC)
Type: Bug
Diet: Herbivore
Average lifespan in the wild: Up to 5 years
Size: 0.4 to 0.6 in (5 to 15 mm) (Workers)
Group name: Colony or Swarm
Size relative to a paper clip:
Honeybee hives have long provided humans with honey and beeswax. Such commercial uses have spawned a large beekeeping industry, though many species still occur in the wild.
All honeybees are social and cooperative insects. A hive's inhabitants are generally divided into three types.
Workers are the only bees that most people ever see. These bees are females that are not sexually developed. Workers forage for food (pollen and nectar from flowers), build and protect the hive, clean, circulate air by beating their wings, and perform many other societal functions.
The queen's job is simple—laying the eggs that will spawn the hive's next generation of bees. There is usually only a single queen in a hive. If the queen dies, workers will create a new queen by feeding one of the worker females a special diet of a food called "royal jelly." This elixir enables the worker to develop into a fertile queen. Queens also regulate the hive's activities by producing chemicals that guide the behavior of the other bees.
Male bees are called drones—the third class of honeybee. Several hundred drones live in each hive during the spring and summer, but they are expelled for the winter months when the hive goes into a lean survival mode.
Bees live on stored honey and pollen all winter, and cluster into a ball to conserve warmth. Larvae are fed from the stores during this season and, by spring, the hive is swarming with a new generation of bees.
SAVING THE HONEY :-
Natural Resources Defense Council(USA)
You can help keep bees healthy by making your yard and garden colorful, diverse and pesticide free. Here are some tips on how you can Bee Safe:
~ Bee Native: Use local and native plants in your yard and garden. These plants thrive easily and are well suited for local bee populations, providing pollen and nectar for bees to eat.
~ Bee Diverse: Plant lots of different kinds of plants in your yard. Plant diversity ensures that your garden attracts many different varieties of bees and gives them a range of flowering plants to choose from throughout the year. Make sure your yard plants vary in:
o Color: Bees have good vision and are attracted to several different colors of flowers.
o Shape: Different species of bees are better suited for different shapes of flowers. Give your bees some variety!
o Flowering times: Having a sequence of plant species that flower throughout the year helps sustain the food supply and attract different species of bees.
~ Bee Open to Pollen: Pollen is bee food. Genetically engineered pollen-free plants trick bees into thinking they’ll find food, and then leave them hungry. (Don’t worry, flower pollen isn’t a big contributor to most people’s allergies.)
~ Bee Pesticide Wary: There are many natural methods to control pests in your garden. Researchers believe pesticides are a contributing factor to Colony Collapse Disorder. Moreover, some insecticides are harmful to bees and wipe out flowers that provide bees with food. If you must, use targeted pesticides and spray at night ~ when bees aren’t active ~ on dry days.
~ Bee a Hive Builder: Building your own bee hive is easy and fun. Creating a wood nest is a good place to start—wood-nesting bees don’t sting! Simply take a non-pressure treated block of wood and drill holes that are 3/32 inch to 5/16 inch in diameter and about 5 inches deep and wait for the bees to arrive.*
Bees wax: -
Beeswax - Glands under the abdomen of bees secrete a wax, which they use to construct the honeycomb. The wax is recovered as a by-product when the honey is harvested and refined. It contains a high proportion of wax esters (35 to 80%). The hydrocarbon content is highly variable, and much may be "unnatural" as beekeepers may feed some to bees to improve the yield of honey. The wax esters consist of C40 to C46 (Carbon Chain) molecular species, based on 16:0 and 18:0 fatty acids some with hydroxyl groups.
In addition, some diesters with up to 64 carbons may be present, together with triesters, hydroxy-polyesters and free acids (which are different in composition and nature from the esterified acids).
The constituents of Bees Wax are as follows:
ESTERS -70-71%
ALCOHOLS -1-1.5%
FREE ACIDS -9.6-10.9%
HYDROCABON -12.1-15.1%
HYDROXY FLAVONE -0.3%
In addition, some diesters with up to 64 carbons may be present, together with triesters, hydroxy-polyesters and free acids (which are different in composition and nature from the esterified acids).
The constituents of Bees Wax are as follows:
ESTERS -70-71%
ALCOHOLS -1-1.5%
FREE ACIDS -9.6-10.9%
HYDROCABON -12.1-15.1%
HYDROXY FLAVONE -0.3%
Uses of their products
BEESWAX:
Worker bees of a certain age will secrete beeswax from a series of glands on their abdomens. They use the wax to form the walls and caps of the comb. As with honey, beeswax is gathered for various purposes.
A forager collecting pollen.
POLLEN:
Bees collect pollen in the pollen basket and carry it back to the hive. In the hive, pollen is used as a protein source necessary during brood-rearing. In certain environments, excess pollen can be collected from the hives of A. mellifera and A. cerana. It is often eaten as a health supplement.
PROPOLIS:
Propolis (or bee glue) is created from resins, balsams and tree saps. Those species of honey bees which nest in tree cavities use propolis to seal cracks in the hive. Dwarf honey bees use propolis to defend against ants by coating the branch from which their nest is suspended to create a sticky moat. Propolis is consumed as a health supplement in various ways and also used in some cosmetics.
THINGS TO BE LEARNT FROM HONEY BEES: -
One of the most amazing facts is that the honey bees balance the temperature of their hives at an optimum temperature.
The beeswax plays a significant role in balancing the temperature of the hive.
If the substance that balances the temperature is known, it is easy for us to balance the temperature of our earth also.
So global warming could be easily brought under control.
Honey bees trap carbon from the atmosphere and forms bee hive made of wax. Slowly it is interacting with the green house effect and bringing down the level of carbon di oxide, which is the most hazardous green house gas which causes global warming. This process of reducing the carbon is called carbon sequestration.
Honey bees as a group appear to have their center of origin in South and Southeast Asia (including the Philippines), as all but one of the extant species are native to that region, notably the most plesiomorphic living species (Apis florea and A. andreniformis). [1] The first Apis bees appear in the fossil record at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, in European deposits. The origin of these prehistoric honey bees does not necessarily indicate that Europe is where the genus originated, only that it occurred there at that time. There are few known fossil deposits in the suspected region of honey bee origin, and fewer still have been thoroughly studied. There is only one fossil species documented from the New World, Apis nearctica, known from a single 14-million-year old specimen from Nevada[2].
The close relatives of modern honey bees - e.g. bumblebees and stingless bees - are also social to some degree, and social behavior seems a plesiomorphic trait that predates the origin of the genus. Among the extant members of Apis, the more basal species make single, exposed combs, while the more recently-evolved species nest in cavities and have multiple combs, which has greatly facilitated their domestication.
Most species have historically been cultured or at least exploited for honey and beeswax by humans indigenous to their native ranges. Only two of these species have been truly domesticated, one (Apis mellifera) at least since the time of the building of the Egyptian pyramids, and only that species has been moved extensively beyond its native range.
Today's honey bees constitute three clades
We wanted to create awareness among people regarding the destruction of these species. Honey bees play a very important role in saving our environment. They pollinate nearly 1/3 of the world’s population of flowers. A single flower pollinates nearly 100 flowers a day. if a single honey bee is destroyed then 100 fruits and vegetables are lost. If a single bee hive is destroyed then 20000x100=2000000 fruits and vegetables are lost. If the same thing happens i.e. if 100 bee hives are destroyed in a district per month then 20 crore flowers are not pollinated. Then imagine the same thing for the entire world….. nearly 1000 crore flowers are un pollinated if there aren’t any honey bees. So our advice to the agriculturists is that if they want to enhance their agricultural productivity then they can rear these species in their farm itself. therefore the agricultural productivity also.
EFFECT OF DEFORESTATION ON HONEY BEES:
Earlier honey bees use to build their hives on tree tops but today they have shifted themselves to human dominated areas. This is because they don’t find their natural habitat i.e. they don’t find trees. Deforestation has led to this change. Hence honey bees have been deeply affected by deforestation. Thus the honey bees have come to buildings to build their hives. When they come to these buildings, they are often destroyed by humans to protect themselves from the stings of bees. If this is going to happen then the entire species of honey bees will be destroyed one day or the other. Thus we can infer that deforestation has led to the great destruction of honeybees.
Earlier honey bees use to build their hives on tree tops but today they have shifted themselves to human dominated areas. This is because they don’t find their natural habitat i.e. they don’t find trees. Deforestation has led to this change. Hence honey bees have been deeply affected by deforestation. Thus the honey bees have come to buildings to build their hives. When they come to these buildings, they are often destroyed by humans to protect themselves from the stings of bees. If this is going to happen then the entire species of honey bees will be destroyed one day or the other. Thus we can infer that deforestation has led to the great destruction of honeybees.