All about what the bee eats

Bees are one of the most useful insects, because they extract 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 much as possible loved by many delicacies, it is necessary to know what the bee eats.

Feeding bees

It is known that the duties of insects living in the hive are divided. Some individuals produce honey and supply their families with food, others feed offspring and follow the order. Each bee has its own diet, which must be respected so that the work in the hive is right. They should receive a sufficient amount of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids.

Of course, answering the question about what the bee eats, the first product can be called honey. Its quality depends on how the insects survive the winter and will survive it in general. In the summer, however, care must be taken to ensure that the plants from which they collect the delicacy contain as few of these carbohydrates as sucrose and glucose. The fact is that these organic compounds accelerate the process of crystallization of honey. Even having collected enough of it, bees can die a starving death because their food has turned into crystals. The plants, the nectar of which contains the greatest amount of glucose and sucrose, include sunflower, cotton, heather, mustard, rape and rapeseed.

With a lack of honey, bees can become more susceptible 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, one can not help but mention ways to reduce the crystallization of honey:

• It is necessary to have a lot of water in the hive.
• Before the winter, you should clean the hive from last year's treats. If you still have the sugar crystals obtained from the harvest of the previous year, you must urgently get rid of them.
• It is important to maintain a constant temperature regime. The process of crystallization of honey slows down if the temperature falls below thirteen degrees or rises above fourteen.

Nutrition of worker bees

As was said before, the hive clearly separates the duties of all individuals. The task of working bees is to get honey and bring it to the house. As a rule, these are females, but they never produce offspring.

Speaking of what the worker's bee eats, one can not help saying that her diet should include those products that give a lot of energy. Being larvae, future workers receive as many useful substances as other individuals who will perform no less important functions.

What does the bee eat at the beginning of its development? Nurses deliver milk to the cells with larvae, and then, when young bees grow, their diet changes: now it consists of a mixture of honey, pollen and water.

When the larva becomes a bee, it immediately starts performing simple tasks, for example, cleans the hive. In the first three days of life, the glands that feed the young grow, and at this time the insect feeds on the food that it takes from other bees. And on the fourth day she independently procures her own food. Becoming more mature and stronger, she gradually inspects the area around the swarm and soon already produces nectar.

Feeding the bee's uterus

What does the bee queen feed on? The individual that reproduces offspring consumes large amounts of royal milk, which contains the substances necessary for its vital activity. Bees bring to the hive nectar, from which a substance is released that contains proteins and lipids. It is they who are fed by the queen bee.

During the laying of eggs, the uterus is fed not only by worker bees, who bring nectar to the beehive, but also others, who are extracting food specially for the female. When swarming takes place, the female consumes more simple food - ordinary honey.

Feeding the bee dumpling

People who live on everything ready and do not work are compared to drones. These bees, however, perform a very important function in the swarm - they impregnate the uterus. As a rule, after the end of the pairing the drone dies, but this does not always happen.

While still in the state of the larva, males consume more food than females. The diet of drone includes honey and nectar. Most often they do not extract it on their own and feed on what the working bees bring. In case they can not find food in a swarm or a hive, they fly out in search of food and search for flowers themselves. By the way, at these moments drones are especially vulnerable: they can not protect themselves from the attack of any insects and birds, since they have no sting.

As you can see, what feeds the bee-drone is simple enough to tell. In addition, you can supplement this information and the fact that males tend to live in such summer months, when honey is especially abundant and it is enough to feed all members of the swarm.