Hiii, I have some bee questions :D I know I could probably just google this, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask! You don’t have to answer all of them tho!!
1. Are bees more yellow and black or more orange and black?
2. How many bees normally live together in a hive (that’s what it’s called right?)?
3. And last one lol, how long does a bee usually live?
Oh my goodness BEE QUESTIONS. IT'S HAPPENING AAAAAHHHH
I'll be honest I did have to do some Googling myself because I don't have numbers memorized, but I will info-dump to make up for it.
Before I start, all my answers are going to be about European honey bees (Apis mellifera). This is the preferred species for beekeeping due to honey output and typical gentleness, and it has been introduced to lots of places for beekeeping, including North America. It's also the focus on my research so that's why I know it fairly well.
(I'm fighting the urge to go off on a tangent about Africanized bees but a) not my specialty and b) that's pretty off topic)
Now question time:
1. Honey bees are mostly black and yellow, but how light or dark they are varies based on their genetic make up. Other bees have orange coloring, for example some bumblebee species.
2. Yes it's called a hive! This number is SO variable based on how much space they have, the time of year, food availability, and colony health. Numbers I found range from 10,000 to 60,000, and I saw one site list 80,000.
Bonus info: when a colony is doing really well and has a really large population in relation to the space available in the hive, the bees will swarm. The colony will start raising new queen bees, and the old queen will leave with 60% of the worker bees to find a new hive. This is how you get new colonies. It also drives bee keepers crazy, because we want large bee populations for greater honey production.
3. INFO DUMP TIME Age depends on the type of bee!
The queen: Assuming she survives a) the initial battle royal to become queen of the colony and b) her mating flight, the queen can live 3-4 years.
Males (called drones): my favorite useless dumb-dumbs live 2 months on average
Worker bees (all female): Depends on the season! Most of the spring and summer they have a 6 week life cycle, in which they will do a lot of jobs in the colony depending on their age. Youngest care for the larvae, oldest do the dangerous work of going outside the hive to forage for nectar and pollen. In the fall, the winter bees start are born. These bees will live 6 months so they can last the winter. The colony has to conserve energy through the winter and not having to constantly raise new bees helps with that. A larger winter bee population increases chances of survival!
Finally, if a honey bee stings you, she will die right after. That's because there's a barb on her stinger that keeps it in your skin and can pull the venom sac out of the bee when she flies away. (This is also why you never pinch a stinger to get it out, since it might push more venom into you. Scrape baby scrape!) Pulling out her guts is a sure way to end her life, but it's a sacrifice she makes for the safety of the colony.
And that's more info that you probably wanted to read! THANK YOU FOR ASKING!!!
