| Honey
bees, although small, play a very significant role in food,
farming and the environment. They also produce nature's
unrefined sweetener - honey - from the nectar of flowers
Bees and the
beekeeping industry are of the utmost importance to the health
and vitality of Canada's agricultural industry and to the
country's economy. Bees play an indispensable role in the
pollination of our essential crops. In fact, bees are
responsible for the health of $170 million worth of crops in
Ontario each year.
 Honey bees are
called "social insects" because they live together in
a cooperative society where adults and young share the same
dwelling. No individual honey bee can survive on its own; they
are all dependent on each other. A colony generally contains one
breeding female, or queen, a few thousand males, or drones, and
a large population of sterile female works bees. The population
of a healthy hive in mid-summer can average between 40,000 and
80,000 bees.
The life span of a worker bee is only 25 and 30 days - during
which it will travel about 500 miles in its quest for nectar and
propolis. "The bees hatched in the fall, (mid-August or
later) will over-winter, and then be replaced by the end of
March or early April."
A queen bee, on the other hand, can live up to seven years,
during which time she typically leaves the hive only once to
mate. A stay-at-home mom, she can lay 1,000 to 3,000 eggs a day,
fertilizing most with sperm she has stored during a brief
mid-air mating session (at only two-weeks of age) with 12 or
more males. That sperm will last for her entire reproductive
term, typically about three years. Most beekeepers, however,
replace their queens every other year to keep egg production at
peak capacity.
Every worker bee engages in a series of different tasks during
its month-long life. "First they're wax builders, then
they're cell cleaners. Then they go through a period as funeral
bearers - getting rid of debris (dead bees) from the hive - then
they become water bearers, bringing back water to the hive; and
finally they become foragers."
Although it is believed these roles are all assumed
instinctively, Leitch is among a growing number of bee experts
who believe that bees possess a remarkable ability to
communicate with others of their kind.
"There's a dance language, the bee dance. One bee, a scout
bee, will go out early in the morning to find a nectar
source." On returning to the hive, the scout notifies the
other bees the precise location of its find. "It tells them
what direction to travel and how far it is, using the sun and
the hive as navigational reference points." Leitch says
he's seen this phenomenon many times.
Bees do not hibernate. "From February on, when the queen
starts laying a small patch, they'll keep the very centre of the
hive at 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) by vibrating
their wing muscles. The outer layer of bees acts as an
insulation blanket. And they rotate, changing positions with the
bees in the centre.
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