On this day, Labour Day, May 1st, 2022, in Kenya, and other parts of the world, a lot of people get a day off from work. Because it’s Sunday, and being Labour Day falls on a Sunday, the following day, Monday, is deemed to be a public holiday. That is, if your job is not a classified essential service or if you operate a farm or bee business.
In the world of bees, however, – “The girls” – continue to work, as they do every day of the year, the unpredictable weather permitting.
“The girls” are the worker honey bees.
On this Labor Day, let’s take a closer look at why those “little ladies” are called worker bees.
Work Conditions – theirs is a dangerous occupation. No thanks to predators and pesticides, many do not return home at night. And so, while conditions for most human laborers have improved, conditions for honey bees are worse than they were a few years ago. While the use of pesticides. Sulphur, DDT, lead arsenic, and cyanide are not daily occurrences in flowers anymore, however other chemicals have taken their place with sometimes dire consequences. The Loss of habitat and farming practices continues to pose a major risk. Further, while Equipment is more efficient for the beekeepers, it is sometimes downright thoughtless and less comfortable for the honey bees.
Serving as a ready reminder at this point are the “bee houses” holding numerous hives designed with “matchbox-like” placement of beehives begging whether we need to stop and think – about whether the pushers of these technologies place any consideration in disease prevention considering the placements, or on the forage of the bees during the dearth – landholding capacity?
Unethical or Unaware?– Some of these issues can be polarizing. These breaches are seldom deliberate attempts to deceive but result from a lack of understanding with equipment suppliers – on hard-court-press to sell equipment and naiveté beekeeper inpatient to earn a quick buck. Beekeeping is not simple. It takes years to develop a solid understanding of the details so, in the meantime, things can get confusing.
Decent Work – oh yes… although some people now earn a minimum wage, honey bees are still receiving the same paltry nothing that they have always been given. What if honey bees were paid?
Well, most discussions of ethical beekeeping center on the treatment of bees. Do bees feel pain? Are they sentient beings? How should beekeepers treat their charges?
While the treatment of bees is an important consideration, and one that deserves scrutiny, ethical beekeeping does not stop at the apiary gate. The actions of beekeepers affect family, friends, other beekeepers, the public, and even the environment itself. When the topic of ethical beekeeping comes up, personally, I cringe because though crucial and deepens you as a beekeeper, it’s hardly given attention in this part of the world. Be sure we shall share insights on this if we are your Beekeeping Solutions Provider
On this Labor Day, however, let’s take a closer look at why those “little ladies” are called worker bees.
Bee Gender and Roles Interestingly, all Worker bees are female! They do all the jobs in the hive at one phase of their lives. Notably, the Worker bees aren’t born into a certain role – they’re born to serve the hive and the queen, and they do that by moving through the ranks from one activity to another depending on the overall needs of the hive – which effect what bees do what jobs and when.
That said, there is a typical career path most honeybees follow:
- Nursing: When worker bees first emerge into the world, they complete their first job—cleaning their own birthing cells and preparing it for another egg to be laid. Then they’ll go about doing the same to other cells. After a few days of this housekeeping activity, the workers begin nursing their unborn sisters developing in the other egg cells. They feed the larvae, clean their cells, and keep them warm. These – nursing bees – are the bees who produce the royal jelly for the queen and very young brood to eat. (Brood other than the queen, are switched to a diet mixture of pollen and honey after a few days). Once they are no longer able to produce the royal jelly, these bees move on to their next role. Now you know, queen rearing depends on lots of nursing bees!
- Maintaining the Hive: At approximately 12 days old, worker bees transition to general chores around the hive. This might include making wax and building the comb, maintaining the optimal temperature in the hive, storing nectar and pollen, fanning nectar to dehydrate it into honey, removing the deceased bodies of hive-mates, and intruders, and guarding the entrance to the hive. During this time, the workers will also take care of the queen and the drones.
- Foraging/Scouting: At about 20 days old, workers then become the foragers of the hive. They go out into the world and gather all the things the colony needs to survive, including nectar, pollen, and resin from nearby trees to make propolis. Scout bees will also go on missions to find new nectar and water sources and report back to the hive so the other worker bees know where to go to get the good stuff. These are the workers who return to the hive and do their little waggle dance to tell the other bees where to go.
During this last stage of life, a worker bee will accumulate up to 800 flight kilometers, until her wings give out and she dies.
So how do they know when it’s time to transition from one job to another?
Bee Hive Organizational Culture – the Values – You may have noticed, perhaps, that we didn’t mention anything about a manager bee who goes around the hive assigning jobs to workers (we don’t think they make clipboards that tiny). It’s pheromones – chemicals – in the hive that tell the workers when it’s time to switch from one job to another. The pheromones produce coordinated activities and developmental processes that move the hive members through the stages of life.
Primer pheromones are released by the queen and brood to keep the social order of the hive in line. They urge the workers to do their various jobs, not raise any more queens, and not lay any eggs themselves. (Worker bees actually can lay eggs, but without the biological means to fertilize them, it means the eggs develop into an abundance of drones who just lie around and use up hive resources -hence not encouraged).
The queen releases the pheromones – embeds the organizational values – at different times, depending on what needs to be done in the hive—there is no set timetable. If there is a need for more foraging and gathering bees out in the field, the queen will use the pheromone to mature younger bees into their new positions. This pheromone also draws workers to her in instances when she needs to be groomed or fed, or during a swarm to keep the hive together.
It is when the queen becomes too weak to release this pheromone that the workers stop doing their jobs and the hive becomes disorganized. The workers must begin raising a new queen from the brood cells to ensure the survival of the hive.
Workers themselves produce releaser pheromones in response to certain events. The most common type of releaser pheromone is the alarm, which happens when a worker prepares to sting an intruder in the hive. This attracts more bees to the scene of the attack to kill the intruder and protect the hive. Workers also give off orientation pheromones at the entrance to the hive to direct workers back home.
On this Labor Day, take a deep dive and remember all the hard workers in your hive whose many contributions make your investment and workplace – the apiary – buzz – you dig!!