Discover how bees REPRODUCE

The bees They play a key role in the spread of pollen. They travel from flower to flower absorbing nectar and carrying pollen on their legs. The pollen contains the reproductive cells of various plants, if it were not for the bees, these small particles would not reach pollinate the flowers of the most distant plants, being restricted its propagation or reproduction. It is an insect that is in danger of extinction, so we are going to investigate what its form of reproduction is and what affects it. In this lesson from a Teacher we will tell you how bees reproduce.

Index

1. What are bees like: salient features
2. How is the reproduction of bees?
3. Curiosities of bees: the roles in the hive

Before telling you how bees reproduce, let's get to know better how are bees and their characteristics. ANDThere are different types of bees, it is a very varied group and we can find some with a solitary or social way of life. In this article we will refer to the

In Apis mellifera, The inhabitants of the hive are:

• the queen bee
• The drones (males)
• The workers (females)

The three types of bees differ morphologically, this means that they are different in size and shape. We can say that the social organization of bees is a matriarchy, since females play a central role in the colony. Most of the colony is made up of females, they are in charge of the organization, maintenance and expansion of the colony, the role of the drones is to satisfy the reproductive needs of the Queen.

In a normal hive, drone brood begins in the spring, and the drones die in the fall. will only keep drones out of season, those colonies that lost the queen for some reason reason.

Image: How they reproduce

We are now going to fully understand how bees reproduce. Here we leave you a scheme with the process so that you better understand everything that happens at this peak moment:

• bees mate in the air.
• Adult drones congregate in areas called "drone aggregation areas," where queen bees go on fertilization flights.
• The Queen performs the nuptial flights and she is inseminated by about 10 to 15 drones.
• the nuptial flights They last from 15 to 30 minutes.
• In the event that on her first flight she manages to mate with a sufficient number of males, she does not leave the colony again to make new flights.
• The males chase the females in flight, they are placed behind her and below her to try to grab her.
• Copulation for the male that manages to reach the queen lasts about 2 seconds.
• Each drone introduces into the female about 6 million sperm, that move to the female's spermatheca in a process that can take up to 40 hours.
• It can mate with several males, but males can only copulate once in their life and with only one female.
• The semen of the various drones with which she copulated the queen will remain reserved in the spermatheca. The queen will use some of these sperm to fertilize the eggs.
• The queen bee is able to control the population of the hive, as they can decide whether to fertilize an egg or not.
• The fertilized eggs will be females, workers or queens and those not fertilized will be drones (males).
• The queen can put up to 3000 eggs per day.
• Drones and workers are fed with royal jelly the first two days of their larval stage, then their diet is based on honey and pollen, instead, the future queens receive royal jelly throughout their larval period. That's where the saying "live like a queen" comes from.

We are going to know how the bees are organized inside the hives. And it is that each of the inhabitants, have different roles for the colony. We find out for you.

The Queen

Queen bees are largest and most important of the colony, since they are the ones that they lay the eggs. These eggs go through various stages of metamorphosis:

1. They first hatch into larvae
2. then in pupae

All this process occurs in the well-known hexagonal cells of the honeycomb, when they finish their development they leave the cells converted into adult bees. They live from 3 to 4 years, lay about 2000 eggs per day, they are fed by workers.

The worker bees

They are the real ones hive workers, From the moment a worker is born, it goes through different tasks: making wax, cleaning, feeding the young and queens, guardians and, finally, foragers.

drones

Beyond impregnate the queen, their functions are much discussed, they are thought to help keep warm and ventilate hive. In a normal hive, drone brood begins in the spring, and the drones die in the fall. Only colonies that have lost their queen for some reason will retain drones out of season.

Image: Madrid Newspaper

If you want to read more articles similar to how bees reproduce, we recommend that you enter our category of biology.

Padilla Alvarez, F., Flores Serrano, J. m. and Perez Ruiz, A. J., (2007). "Mating behavior in honey bees", Department of Zoology, Rabanales Campus, University of Córdoba.