My thoughts on this article of honeybee and building construction and how we humans use their ideas in daily living when it comes to building is astonishing to me. Even at the beginning of the article that a single honey comb can hold up to 4 pounds of honey! A surprising number considering the weight ratio of a single comb to the honey itself a good example of this weight ratio that the article used is the Space shuttle uses honey comb shaped winged designs. Yet it’s strong and lightweight like a Bee’s honey comb. Inside temperatures and inside hive temperatures are extremely similar. Although we humans rely on HVAC systems for our own comfort honey bees do the same with great precision. “From late winter to early autumn, the annual period of brood rearing by honey bee colonies, the temperature in the broodnest region of each colony’s hive is precisely regulated between 33ºC and 36ºC, averaging 34.5ºC and varying less than 1ºC across the day. This impressive temperature stability is accomplished through a set of mechanisms whereby colonies either heat or cool the broodnest, depending on the ambient temperature… (Seeley 1995, pg. 212)”. …show more content…
First they retain heat over the long term by selecting a good nest site. Second they can all cluster together to reduce the volume of air needing thermal management. As ambient temperatures begin to fall to 14ºF Bees will begin to eat their own honey, and exercise their wing muscles to keep warm as they wait for the summer. Human’s relation with winter months and how we keep heating is yet again similar. We build buffer zones, such as foyers and mud rooms, to help reduce cold temperatures. Some HVAC systems are designed to allow for zoning and partial or shutdown of supply to tempered
It was a normal, peaceful Wednesday morning in Tuscon, Arizona. Four landscapers were called to tend to a yard for a ninety-year-old man. One of them turned on his lawnmower. Almost immediately, the vibration of its engine had disturbed an enormous hive of approximately 800,000 Africanized bees nearby. The noises appeared to be a threat to the colony. As a result, thousands of them swarmed the men, injected their venom, and clogged their orifices up, such as their ears and nostrils. There were so many bees that one of the first responders had described the sky getting dark from the flock, although it was sunny out. From this attack, one man died and another received one hundred stings. This one of the many examples
Ah Christmas/Winter. The time of the year marked by the sound of joyous carols , cheerful talk of holiday plans, skating, candy canes, turkeys, family dinners, christmas sale signs plastered in front of almost every store, jesus coming down from the heavens, crappy nativity art and the general feeling of togetherness. But also as not being recognized by most people the one time of year when bee colonies are suppose to begin to healthily dwindle in numbers. As part of of an healthy ecological cycle, many wild & domesticated bee populations decline a bit in number during the winter season only to revive themselves later in the spring/summer, but that hasn’t been the case for many years. Ever since 1998 beekeepers have noticed significant drops in bee populations, throughout all seasons. In 2011, Canada saw
A juicy apple. Pumpkin pie. Crisp almonds. Tangy oranges and grapefruit. None of these foods would survive without the hard work of honeybees. Unfortunately, in the last two years, United States beekeepers reported a loss of over 44% of honeybee colonies. Similarly, Europe has experienced a 25% loss and the United Kingdom has experienced a 45% loss. These numbers are staggering. What is causing this sharp decrease in the honey bee population? What are the long term impacts of a declining honey bee population? These questions must be explored because, like Albert Camus’ absurd hero, Sisyphus, and J. Howard Miller’s iconic hero, Rosie the Riveter, honeybees are vigilant in their tiring, though inspired, efforts toward a particular goal—in this
The pests of mites and the use of pesticides are hurting the population of the honey bee and other bees as well. The growing number of bees needed to pollinate certain vegetation causes the bees to be overworked and spread thin to do the normal pollination that they would have been doing without the growing demand of food sources and no rise in the number of bees. Another threat this industry faces is the uncaring of individuals or corporations who could give to the causes but will not and care not to be educated on the plight of the honey bees. The weather with its unpredictability can cause a major threat to the health of the honey bee colonies and the production of the honey in Northern
Food quality has emerged over the past decade as a top concern for consumers leaving many large food brands struggling to adapt. Growing concern over the rate of obesity, genetically modified organisms (GMO), and overuse of antibiotic are the most significant drivers leading consumers to purchase healthier food. New companies are successfully targeting this demographic using terms such as “Non GMO”, “Gluten – Free”, and “Organic.” Meanwhile revenue continues to decline for legacy food companies including, General Mills, Kellogg Co, and Kraft Foods Inc. struggle to adapt to changing consumer preferences. Large traditional food companies are seeking to counter these trends by acquiring existing health food companies, developing new products,
There are three types of bees in a hive; namely, the queen, worker bees and drones. There is only one queen per hive and her role is to produce more bees (4). This is done by mating with the male bees. After mating, the queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day (4). Drones are male bees and their role is to mate with the queen. Drones spend a considerable amount of time inside the hive; in addition, during early winter
The decline in a variety of bee populations on a global scale has been obvious since the 1990s and scientists have been struggling with what is actually causing this decline. Current studies show that the use of systemic pesticides, specifically neonicotinoids, has been causing the number of bees to decrease rapidly. There are currently seven different types of neonicotinoids used in the agricultural industry today including imidacloprid, clothianidin, acetamiprid, thiamethoxam, thiacloprid, dinotefuran, and nithiazine. Each of these neonicotinoids are currently being studied and the most commonly used neonicotinoid today is imidacloprid.
Honey bees have been known to humans since ca. 13,000 B.C., archaeological scrutinies have revealed images describing bees and hive beekeeping. Humans learned to use wooden containers, hollow logs, and straw baskets to domesticate wild bees. The highly irrigated lands of lower Egypt covered with flowering plants is named as the most ancient site of beekeeping in human history
the manager acts as a mentor, facilitating plans and organising activities. The leader is Andy,
The Apis Mellifera, or honey bee, have survived on this planet for fifty million years. This species of bee is responsible for pollinating flowers, grass, trees and crops around the world. Much of the food we eat is dependent on honey bees for pollination. Our ecosystem depends on the survival of the honey bee. Colonies of honeybees have been disappearing at an alarming rate around the world due to parasites, viral and bacterial diseases, and the introduction of pesticides and herbicides. Over the past six years, on average, 30 percent of all the honey bee colonies in the U.S. died off over the winter of 2012(NPR/TED). If this trend continues to spiral downward, honey bees will disappear from the world. We must understand the importance
They are 20 000 species of honey bee in the world, they all have a different ecological niche. They have a different habitat in the way they live, and eat.Honeybees were brought by the Europeans in the 1600s to the North America, honey bees spreaded throughout the area. Honey bees produce honey and pollinate crops (they are dependant on fruits and nuts).
For just one to ten queen bees will cost about thirty-two dollars but if you buy hundred queen bees or more it only cost twenty-five dollars. Bees can fly up to eight miles from their nest in search of food. In a worker bee's lifetime they will travel about one thousand kilometers ( six-hundred twenty miles). Bees are all female and they do all the work for the hive. Workers perform the following tasks inside the hive as a House Bee: Cleaning, feeding the baby bees, feeding and taking care of the queen, packing pollen and nectar into cells, capping cells, building and repairing honeycombs, fanning to cool the hive and guarding the hive. Bees have straw-like tongues called a proboscis so they can suck up liquids and also mandibles so they can chew.The average life of a honey bee during the working season is about three to six weeks. There are five products that come from the hive: Honey, beeswax, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly. Royal jelly is a honey bee secretion that is used in the nutrition of larvae as well as adult queens. Propolis is a resinous mixture that honey bees produce by mixing saliva and beeswax with exudate gathered from tree buds, sap flows, or other
Most honey bee colonies are commercialized, which means they are grown on farms. The farmed bee colonies are then loaded on trucks and shipped all over the country to pollinate crops. This processed is used all over the world. To put it into scale a single semi-truck carries 400 bee colonies each containing 30,000 to 50,000 bees with a grand total of about 3.5 million bees (Kraus, 2013). After shipping the bees are unloaded from trucks and placed along grid lines
ALL OF HUMANITY as complex and fragile as it is STANDS ON VARIOUS PILLARS. ONE OF THEM HAPPENS TO BE THE HONEYBEE. 1/3 MEALS THAT YOU eat everyday IS MADE POSSIBLE BY BEES. THEY ARE SO IMPORTANT THAT IF THEY WERE TO DIE OUT THOUSANDS OF PLANTS (because they pollinate if you didn't know that) WOULD FOLLOW, WHICH WOULD EVENTUALLY LEAD TO OUR STARVATION AS LIVESTOCK WOULDNT HAVE ANY FOOD UNABLE TO PROVIDE FOR OUR MILK AND MEAT. THEY ALSO HAVE A HUGE ECONOMIC IMPACT BRINGING IN 100S OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS BY THE PLANTS
Honeybees are social insects that live in eusocial communities in which the bees partake in complex activities and live in well-organized groups. There are three types of bees that exist within the hive: the queen, the drone, and the worker. Each colony has one queen bee, whose primary function is reproduction. She also produces pheremones which represses the ovarian development in the worker bees which unifies the colony and maintains her position as queen, until a new one takes over. Drones are the male bees of the colony, and their sole purpose within the hive is for reproduction. Worker bees perform all of the duties to maintain the hive, including building cells, care for and feed the young, care for the queen, handle nectar to produce honey, and guard the