How many bees live in nature

Honey is a delicious and healthy treat that bees collect. But do you know how many bees live? This article will answer this question, as well as disclose the features of the life of "honey producers."

Stages of development and social groups

Insects in the life cycle have 4 stages of development: egg-caterpillar-pupa-adult. In the colony there are 10-50 thousand bees, which are divided into 3 social groups: the uterus, working females (sterile), male drones and developing young bees.

The uterus lays 1000 eggs a day, she is the mother of all "honey-mongers", and her life expectancy is up to 5 years. If we compare how many bees the workers and the uterus live, it turns out that only the uterus lives for several years, the remaining individuals remain viable for 1.5-9 months.

As a result of pairing the uterus with the male, 2 sets of genes are formed, which are transmitted to the female descendants (worker bees). Male drones are endowed only with sexual function, they are recognized as semicolumns of the uterus and do not have a paternal set of genes. If the eggs are fertilized by the beekeepers with two copies of the gene of one allele, then sterile males appear, which are already destroyed by the working bees at the stage of the larvae. With unsuccessful crosses, whole families may die.

How many live bees

On average, the working bee lives six weeks, but it dies immediately, if someone stings. Drones do not have a sting, and they are larger than working individuals. They are looked after by the "hard workers". They live 2 months only because they must fertilize the young uterus during this time. If this does not happen, they are either expelled or leave the family themselves.

How many live bees that came out of the larvae on the eve of autumn? They hibernate to the spring in the hive, so the life span of such individuals increases and can reach 7-9 months.

The "melliferous laborers" have a very unusual feature - they can regulate the duration of their life. It happens:

• In the event of an emergency (deprivation of the uterus);
• When swarming bees.

The lifespan of some individuals in these cases can reach 150-200 days. Also, beekeepers noticed that with abundant supply of bee colonies by pollen, insects live longer. In a strong family, bees tend each other, so life there is fine. But the main indicator on which the life of a bee will depend is its activity: the more work, the faster the individual becomes decrepit.

Factors affecting the lifespan of the "honey planters"

Thus, the life of bees depends on the following factors:

• Time of year - in winter individuals live longer;
• Belonging to the social category - the uterus lives the longest;
• Strength of the bee family - in strong families the individuals live longer;
• Amount of processed nectar - the more intensive the bee, the less the life span.

Before breeding bees, you need to learn all the features of the life expectancy of bees, in order to increase the effectiveness of the work of the hive. After all, to produce one kilogram of honey, the bee needs to fly out of the hive and visit the flower 20 million times. Of course, honey is made not by a single bee, but by thousands. But you need to take care of them and provide comfortable living conditions.