HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1990-03-14, Page 38.1►
•
!ACM Ili mu MOWS
•
Bee keeping is one of the oldest ag industries
ok Imes imp 24
lay eggs P fertilised and unferttiiaaa d. Th.
fertilisedb worker boot while
the. sole t� d become drones. Ruosel
said a good queen could lay upwards to
209. eggs in ,one day. Only the queen Is
fed "royal jelly", , whichs a high Protein
substanee produced ► to ft
bees. head. He OW precede
. " 11 1
I!
It is to
mote here thebees will produce a
queen if they are without one. This is
done simply by feeding a very young.
female larva a =plug; of royal jelly. The
length of
of a q,flueenbe requiredevelopmett
efor maturity, is
1g days, whereas a worker requires 21
days to develop and a drone 24 days.
When the . queen is about a week old
she takes her matrimonial flight at which
time she mates with one or more drones.
Despite the fact that there are many
drones in. her own hive from which she
could choose a mate, she actually leaves
her hive. The males from her own hive
will follow her as will males from. other
hives. The weather has to be suitable for
this all important flight. If bad weather'
delays, it, the queen may never proceed
with her -flight and therefore will never
mate. If this happens, the beekeeper
would have to remove her from the col-
ony and a new queen would have to be
raised.
The worker bee has a variety of duties
Within the colony. She cleans cells. She
nurses other bees. She clusters with ,other
workers to keep the eggs warm. She rises
the wax glands on her abdomen to build
comb.. She takes the pollen and nectar
from the field bees and stores it in the
cells, She feeds the queen bee honey and
pollen when .she is laying eggs. She acts
as security guard at the entrance to the
eslostr-hive gleear the
pollen d nectar a
the fields. As ROM( p* tali, that's a
busy schedule cumidering that a werkar
bee only lives for approximately nix
weeks during the honey season.
The only pupae of 1130 ,gone is to fer-
tWxe the queen. They do not become in-
volved in the upkeep of the colony se the.
workers do. In fact, the workers feed the
drones.! Russel pointed out that the
drones only live for the sumer. By
September, the worker bees will start to
caar'ry the drones outof the live and
leave them outside to die. There is •a
reason for this according to Russel. The
drones are heavy eaters and with the
food supply in the hive at a minimum
over the winter, it makes good "bee"
sense to rid the colony of that burden.
The Hsaey and Comb 1
There are actually two �. of combs
in. a hive. One is used to the young
and the other is used to store the food.
Although the bees could make the comb
on their own, beekeepers usually offer a
little assistance. For example, Russel
places a sheet of foundation wax in a
tom onto which the bees will ;continue to
build. As mentioned' earlier, the bees
have wax glands on the underside of
their abdomens andthis wax is secreted
as tiny scales. Russel said, "The whole
pprocess is quite a complex one, but the
bee .finally ends up chewing the wax un-
til it softens and then it into the
comb."
The process by which bees turn nectar.
into honey is quito fascinating. The nec-
tar which the bees bring to the hive from
the Oehl contains a lot of water. In order
to store this nectar in the cells of the
comb for ripening, a certain amount of
this water has to be removed. One way
The honey crop is removed from the hives twice a semen..
Bio FINANCING OR
si
0
ASH BACK
MARCH IS TRUCK MONTH AND WHAT A WAY TO START
OFF YOUR SPRING SEASON THAN BY "SAVING" ON
YOUR NEW GMC FULL SIZE PICK UP OR SAFARI VAN
AT
2iira
Nik, Is
1i�e.�110®
®® WPM a., = � 1
r i
M.sem _____ ®®ems
PONTIAC BUICK GMC
r. .
f,S'f
' "rich. k�RTON
§
•
.881-3401
WE NEEP YOUR TRADE-IN!
Offer Does Not Include GMC Full Size"fie
"THIS OFFER RUNS
FROM
MARCH 3 TO MARCH 31
1990"
Rob Morrow
ed = PicicUps, Financing Is On Approved Credit: Only
801*Amon
IN RE
' ..
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
COMES FIRST, AND GREAT
DEALS TO BOOT!
Paul Lawrence