How Old are Bees?

There has been some debate about the age of bees. The oldest known honey bee as we know it today was found about 35-40 million years ago, but a discovery in Burma has found a close ancestor encapsulated in a piece of amber that is over 100 million years old. While this ancestor does share some traits with the wasps, it is more bee than wasps, but does point to the idea that bees evolved from wasps and this might show us when in history the species diverged going from the carnivorous insect to the pollinating honey maker we know today. 

Honey Bee Life Cycle and Hierarchy?

The fascinating thing about a honey bee colony is that the whole hive works in concert with the queen as conductor to maintain and further the hive and the individual bee cannot survive without the colony. Every bee has a function and every bee knows it's function which it performs tirelessly. There are three types of bees found in a colony- the drone, the worker and the queen. 

 The Drone

The drone is the male of the hive and leads a charmed life as he does not work, does not help with the offspring, gathering food or helping build the hive. He does not even feed himself, the female workers do. It has only one purpose in life- to mate with the queen. The drones are slightly larger than the female workers but do not have a stinger since the stinger is a modified egg laying organ only females contain. When the hive gets cold, the bees will shiver to produce heat and when it gets hot the bees will flap their wings to help cool the comb. The drones have been known to participate in this activity, but aside from that, they wait until the time comes from them to gather in a Drone Congregation Area where the males wait for a queen to come by engage them in mid flight love making acrobatics. Just as the female worker dies when she stings because she cannot pull out her stinger, the male faces the same problem with his organ which he loses along with his abdomen while mating and dies immediately afterward. 

The Worker

In stark contrast to the drones, the females do everything in the hive except lay eggs. They construct, maintain and clean the comb, forage for food, feed the larvae, feed the queen, scout for resources, scout for locations, make honey and protect the hive. The job of the worker changes as they get older. It takes about 3 weeks for the egg to mature through larva and pupa into adulthood and he first thing a worker does when it is born is to turn right around and spends a couple of days cleaning out their cell for reuse. The worker honey bee then spends the next 10 or so days caring for the brood by feeding the drone and worker larva a jelly from the same glands she uses to produce the royal jelly she feeds the queen. Around the 12th day, the wax glands have developed and the worker moves on to construction and maintenance of the comb. They also regulate the temperature as the brood require exact conditions for maturation and the honey must be kept cool so it wont melt. The workers huddle together and shiver if it gets too cold in the hive and will pour water around the comb and fan their wings to cause evaporation and cool the hive. During this time, they are also responsible for receiving and storing nectar and pollen brought in by the forgers as well as feeding the queen. The next three days will spent as the dreaded guards. Thought the female is capable of stinging throughout her life, this is when she on 24 hour duty. They guards monitor the entrance to make sure that no robber bees, bees from other hives trying to steal their honey, enter and that all the bees that enter have the right scent. They also guards that inspect disturbances- these are the ones that tap you in the head if you've ever gotten too close to an active hive. Finally there are the reserves, the group of guards gathered by the entrance ready to attack if a threat is detected. Now, just after their 20h day in life, the bees are finally free to leave the hive and move on to the job of foraging. The gather nectar by sucking it out with their tongues which they store in a second stomach. When they return to the hive the nectar is passed on to one of the younger bees who process it into honey. While they are gathering nectar, they rub against the pollen in the flower which sticks to their back legs and clumps up in special hairs they have, and is then brought back to the hive and also used as a major source of nutrients. The same pollen rubs off as they travel from flower to flower causing pollination. The other essential ingredient essential to the hive is propolis. It is mainly used to seal up cracks in the cavity and protect the hive from other insects and bacteria. It is also used for dealing with any predators that have died in the hive. Most of the dead bees and waste from the hive are carried out if the hive by the workers, but occasionally something too big to carry gets stung to death and the bees have to figure out a way to prevent the carcass from decaying. They seal it in propolis, essentially mummifying it and prevent it from spreading bacteria. 

The Queen