I was given the rare opportunity to digitally witness the excavation of a bee colony. This excavation occured at my job site. Bee's are fascinating creatures! In a bee colony such as this, 3 types of bees exist: the queen, worker, and drone. It was estimated that this colony contained approximately 15,000 bees. The queen is responsible for populating the colony and can lay up to 1500 eggs a day. The drones (male bees) have no stinger, pollen baskets, or wax glands. Their main function is to fertilize the queen, they die instantly upon mating. Workers are the smallest of the 3 and the most numerous in the colony. The worker bees clean out the cells, feed the brood, care for the queen, remove debris, handle incoming nectar, build combs, guard the entrance and air condition and ventilate the hive before going into the field. Once in the field they forage for nectar, pollen, water, and plant sap. And the not so surprising part - the worker bees are FEMALES, who knew?
The bees seen in the images below have been relocated to a bee farm.
Thanks to Jim Staffan (The Bee Keeper) and Steve Goetz (The Apprentice) for allowing me to learn from you as well as capture this event on film (digital - of course).
These two images are my favorite. (you can click on any image to enlarge - including the slideshow)
