The Importance of Bees in the Environment and a Guide to Beekeeping
Honey bees live in highly intricate communes or colonies of as many as 100,000 bees; the largest population of bees in a beehive are worker bees, which are unfertile females. Worker bees also perform most of the work in the beehive. The work includes gathering nectar, water and pollen and cleaning and feeding the queen. The other functions performed by the worker bees are cooling or heating the beehive, whenever it is necessary; fortifying the hive cell using beeswax and develop larvae’s. When the beehive is busy during the peak season, most worker bees live for only six week before dying from exhaustion. The relatively few male bees found in the beehive are known as drones. …show more content…
However, the demand for animal pollinated crops across the world far supersedes those of non-pollinated crops. This means a decline in the population of bees can lead to a decrease in food supply and consequently an increase in food prices. The growing concern over the high number of honey bee colonies being lost is extremely worrying. According to a report by the European based agency Bees and Biodiversity, this predicament is raising a lot of ecological and economic questions. Some studies have suggested that as much as 80% of plant species which depend directly on pollinating insects could be threatened by this …show more content…
Honey bees in particular have come under serious threat from a number of fronts. The threats are as a result of honey bee disease and pests, habitat destruction, agricultural chemicals and decline in commercial beekeeping activities. The destruction of the bee habitat has led to a loss in pollen and nectar resources. The loss of food sources for the bees is clearly evident in most parts of the world where land is being exercised to build housing units and malls. This development has made it very difficult for commercial bee keepers to make beekeeping a viable and sustainable
Honey bees live in highly intricate communes or colonies of as many as 100,000 bees; the largest population of bees in a beehive are worker bees, which are unfertile females. Worker bees also perform most of the work in the beehive. The work includes gathering nectar, water and pollen and cleaning and feeding the queen. The other functions performed by the worker bees are cooling or heating the beehive, whenever it is necessary; fortifying the hive cell using beeswax and develop larvae’s. When the beehive is busy during the peak season, most worker bees live for only six week before dying from exhaustion. The relatively few male bees found in the beehive are known as drones. …show more content…
However, the demand for animal pollinated crops across the world far supersedes those of non-pollinated crops. This means a decline in the population of bees can lead to a decrease in food supply and consequently an increase in food prices. The growing concern over the high number of honey bee colonies being lost is extremely worrying. According to a report by the European based agency Bees and Biodiversity, this predicament is raising a lot of ecological and economic questions. Some studies have suggested that as much as 80% of plant species which depend directly on pollinating insects could be threatened by this …show more content…
Honey bees in particular have come under serious threat from a number of fronts. The threats are as a result of honey bee disease and pests, habitat destruction, agricultural chemicals and decline in commercial beekeeping activities. The destruction of the bee habitat has led to a loss in pollen and nectar resources. The loss of food sources for the bees is clearly evident in most parts of the world where land is being exercised to build housing units and malls. This development has made it very difficult for commercial bee keepers to make beekeeping a viable and sustainable