Bees - Blog Posts

Bees 10 times out of 10

MY BUDDY MY FRIEND MY PAL MY BEE SWARM SIMULATOR FRIENDS! 💖💖💖💖💖💖

This is probably silly, but would you mind breaking down the genders of bees in the hive and some of the roles the various genders take on? I've heard mixed things about what gender drones are, males dying immediately after sex with the queen (?), and I'm wondering how and when the hive produces another queen! Thank you so much, your patience and knowledge are hugely appreciated. Also, are there any cool insects that can change sex like frogs and fish occasionally can?

There is no such thing as gender in animals besides humans and gender roles aren’t based on anything other then misogyny and they don’t exist within animals.

What you’re specifically asking about is called castes, and your typical eusocial species of bee such as a honeybee have three castes; workers, drones and a queen. 

A queen’s function within the hive is to lay eggs, while a drones only purpose is to mate. The workers are tasked with every other role within the colony including cleaning, disposing of the dead or diseased, nursing, guarding and protecting the hive, foraging for pollen and nectar, and so on.

The queen lays two types of eggs; haploid (half the amount of chromosomes which is 16 in bees) and diploid (both sets of 32 chromosomes) eggs. The haploid eggs become drones meaning that they have no fathers, this is a type of parthenogenesis called arrhenotoky.

The normal diploid eggs (chromosomes sets from the queen + one of the drones that mated with her) can become either workers or a new queen. Every single diploid egg has the potential to become a queen. It is diet in the larval stage that determines if the egg will be a queen or a worker.

The workers will create a new queen themselves by building a specific brood comb called a queen cup, once the old queen has laid an egg in them, the workers will begin feeding them entirely on royal jelly: a secretion from the hypopharynx of nurse worker bees while larvae that will become workers are fed some royal jelly but mostly a mixture of pollen and nectar called bee bread. Because the royal jelly is so protein-rich it provides the future queen larvae with the energy to develop into a sexually mature females. 

Once the queen emerges from her cell fully-mature she will seek out other recently hatched virgin queens and unemerged queens and killed them as they are rivals: there can only be one queen after all. When the virgin queen is the sole survivor she’ll then leave the hive for the first (and often the last and only time) for her mating flight. Bees mate on the wing, so swarms of drones will chase after her competing for the chance to mate with the single queen, these are called drone comets. 

If a drone is lucky enough to mate with the queen, he’ll insert his penis into her before it is torn off (and often left inside the queen). This causes the drones to fall to the ground and die shortly after. The queen will mate with multiple drones sporing their sperm inside an organ called the spermatheca in which she uses to fertilise and lay her eggs. 

Here’s a queen with the penis of a drone still plugged inside her, otherwise known as the mating sign.

Not all drones get this chance to mate, and often die outside the hive because they’re evicted for reasons like lack of resources, the hive not being healthy / strong, or it’s the end of the bee season going into winter. Drones are relatively expendable within the hive and are useless at feeding themselves so they die pretty quickly. 

I shouldn't be alone in my own thoughts, cause now that I know bees communicate by dancing, I imagine them breakdancing to explain why they divorced to the kids or announcing the fact that grandma bee won't be there at Christmas.

BEEEEE Lady  :ó)

Curled in a flower, resting for the day.

Busy bumbles.

Ever wondered exactly how and why bees make honey?

Simple explanation of why and how bees make honey.

wooo tiny bugs i make

That bee sure is ready

Death by pesticide

Just wanted to share with you what I have bee-n doing with my free time and to tell you all to bee happy

+° . ๑・° ⊹ . + ° . ๑・° ⊹ . + ° . ๑・° ⊹ . + ° . ๑・° +° .

"and I love Vermont, but it's the season of the sticks and I

saw your mom she forgot that I existed

and it's

half my fault, but I just like to play the victim"

-noah kahan!!! my beloved!!!

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hello again!!! i definitely have kept on track and missed no days!!! mother nature making us hivemind? so many things added together (loss of scopaesthesia due to phone use, opting for different choices then either supporting or vetoing each other until reaching a consensus, pheromones, etc.) make hivemind in nature, so us too?

answer plz help

+° . ๑・° ⊹ . + ° . ๑・° ⊹ . + ° . ๑・° ⊹ . + ° . ๑・° +° .

My entry for @rockmiyabideusexmachina Valentine’s Day Contest in the humour category.

Once again, I had a lot of fun coming up with an idea featuring one of my favorite ships! I’m really happy with the result; I loved drawing some cute robot bees.

And I had even more fun looking at everyone’s entries, they’re all so good!

Fuzzy and kind little things.

Fruit Bees!

Beeeeeesssss!!!!

Some shots I took of busy Nevada bees! 🐝

𝑨𝒎𝒊𝒅𝒔𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒂 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒔 𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒗𝒊𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒍 𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒂 𝒔𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒚 𝒅𝒂𝒚.

My girl posing like a supermodel...if only I wasn't broke and had a better camera :'')

EEEE colorful bugs and birds and flowers!!! I LOVE-

I’ll just leave this here

favorite: sweetener, color, insects.

Gravel - Landscape Photo of a small rustic drought-tolerant and partial sun side yard gravel landscaping.

Random Fact Of The Day: Did You Know Bee’s, Wasps, & And Any Other Bug With Stingers, Are Venomous? Their Stingers Are Filled With Various Amounts Of Venom That Can Cause Allergic Reactions!

small world

The word bees explains its self

B E E S

There is a b and some ees

B E E S