The Biology Of Honeybees

There's approximately 20,000 species of honeybees throughout the world making them interesting to beekeeper's who rely on them to cross pollinate because when honeybees do that it changes not only the flowers they collect pollen from creating new species of flowers, but it also changes the consistency of the honey they produce.

Beekeeper's track honeybees when they cross-breed with other species of honeybees and that's how they track their habits from mating to origin of where they come from. Beekeeper's will also track their honey production since different species of honeybees will produce different consistencies of honey.

Most honeybees originated from places in Europe, Africa and some parts of Asia, but over the centuries many immigrants brought these honeybees to the United States. Bees are found on all continents except Antarctica where it is too cold for them to live. The evolution of honeybees are derived from wasps since they're cousins with the exception that wasps aren't pollinating insects and their ability to be organized rivals wasps, beetles, flies, and butterflies. Honeybees are categorized in two social classes that are ideal for beekeeper's to adapt their system of managing honeybees and hives.

Most honeybees born are usually female with a few males. The females will fight each other for control of the beehive and colony. Now most people when they hear about the African bee they think killer bees when in fact the Africanized honeybee is in fact not dangerous as people make them out to be. It is this specie of bees that is the most popular with beekeeper's and the beekeeping industry alike.

The Africanized honeybees mostly produce clover honey, which is the most used and produced honey on the market. One reason that the African bee is so popular is because they're not an aggressive species that will readily attack someone, but they will attack when they're defending their beehive and the Queen-who will go into isolation inside the beehive after she becomes pregnant and isn't seen ever again. Usually most beekeepers remove portions of the beehive, but leave the one that contains the queen where it's. Disruption of a queen bee can really cause havoc within the bee colony.

Honeybees are generally docile, but they do get annoying when they fly around you during picnics because their sense of smell will direct them since they don't have very good eyesight. Their sense of smell is what helps them find flowers they pollinate and sometimes with the food people eat because the smell can mimic flowers, which can result in them getting their scents mixed up. This is why you'll likely find bees swarming around trash because debris on food wrappers can attract them because the sweet scents resemble flowers and plants.

Beekeeper's should be careful about dispensing their trash because honeybees can smell sweet scents for long distances and what can be harmless such as disposing trash can turn into a huge pest problem when they start gathering in places that isn't their normal habitat such as the beehive.