The American Beekeeping Federation, Inc.

1997 4-H Essay Contest State Winner

	Brianne Damon
	Bracy Island 4-H
	Waller County, TX

The honey bee can trace its roots back to prehistoric times. However, during this time period, the honey bee probably originated in Tropical Africa and were brought to America with the first colonists.^l A honey bee's actual size is 1/2 inch.² Until 1990, honey bees in the United States were quite docile-that is, until "The Invasion."

During the 1950s researchers in Brazil were trying to produce a more productive honey bee which, in turn, created a more aggressive honey bee-the African honey bee. After the research began, swarms of these African honey bees escaped and bred with other bees which lived in the Brazilian jungles. This mating created a new "hybrid" of bees known as the Africanized honey bee. These bees slowly migrated to the United States. The first swarm found in the United States was on October 15, 1990 in Hidalgo, Texas.³ Although the African honey bee looks like the more docile honey bee. there are certain differences. First, the African honey bee is slightly smaller and produces less venom. Second, the African honey bee's wings beat faster; and third, less we forget, is their temper.

Below is a comparison of the status, characteristics, traits/personalities, and habits between the Africanzed honey bee and the Euronean honev bee.

Just like humans, a colony has its own caste system or social class. In both the Africanized honey bee and the European honey bee hives there are three classes of bees which work together: the queen, drone and worker bee. Because the queen has workers to aid her in the hive, both the Africanized and European honey bee are referred to as a social bee. Honey bees live, breed and produce honey in a hive.

The main function of the queen bee is to keep the worker bees busy. By secreting a pheromone through the mandibular gland which is located near the head, the queen keeps the workers uninterested in reproduction so that additional queen bees do not develop. Pheromone is a chemical that smells like lemons.⁴ Pheromone not only acts like a birth control, it also is used as an alarm mechanism between bees. The Africanized Honey bee pays more attention to the alarm pheromone than the European Honey bee.⁵

Another job of the queen (both Africanized and European) is to lay eggs, which takes up most of the queen's time. Research by Johann Pzierzon has indicated that the queen bee controls the sex of the eggs she lays.⁶ If the queen stops producing pheromone or laying eggs, one of her most recent eggs will be moved to a special cell within the hive as a replacement queen. When the new queen bee is formed, she chews her way out of the cell. After the queen leaves the cell, she eats some honey and wanders through the colony searching out other queens (even unhatched eggs) which she kills. The new queen then begins her mating flights with the drone bees.

The drone bee is larger and stouter than the queen bee or worker bees (see chart). The drone bee has only one function in the hive: that is, mating the queen. The drone bees are fed by the worker bees with regurgitated nectar. ⁷ Like the queen bee, the drone bee lacks the body parts to harvest nectar or pollen.⁸ The queen and worker bees prevent the drone bee from feeding on the honey stored when nectar becomes scarce.⁹ The worker bees keep the drones out of the hive in the fall forcing the drone bees to starve to death.

The worker bee is the smallest member of the colony. Have you ever heard the saying "dynamite comes in small packages"? Well, that is exactly what the worker bee is. The worker bees are often referred to as the queen's court. The court consists of 12-20 young workers encircling the queen bee who constantly lick and groom her. ^l0The worker bee performs several activities within the hive. Some of those activities include:

The lifespan of a worker bee is 28- 35 days depending upon which time of year it is born. Generally, if the worker bee is born in June, the lifespan is shorter.¹² I think it is amazing that the worker bee can perform all of these functions in the colony in so short of a time frame.

Because the Africanized Honey bee and the European Honey bee look so much alike, the honeycomb is one way to differentiate the two. The cells of an Africanized Honey bee are slightly smaller because the Africanized Honey bee is slightly smaller than the European Honey bee. ^l3

Unlike the European Honey bee, the Africanized Honey bee does not overwinter, that is, they do not store extra honey for winter. Therefore, they usually die during the winter months.

The Africanized Honey bee is not as docile as the European Honey bee. The defensive behavior of the Africanized Honey bee is an inherited trait. Scientists think that this aggressiveness comes from their struggle to live in the wild. Whereas, the European Honey bee has been bred by humans for its gentleness to be a better honey producer.

Honey bees fly in large groups called swarms. Swarming usually occurs in spring and early summer when the honey bee colonies divide because of overcrowding. One half of the honey bees will leave the nest and begin a new colony usually with the old queen.^l4 In swarms, honey bees are less likely to sting because there is no nest to protect.

In 1987, Mexico and the United States tried to halt the spread of the Africanized Honey bee. The Bee Regulated Zone ("BRZ") was established in the narrowest part of Mexico (Isthmus of Tehuantepec) and baited hives were set out. ^l5The bait used in the bee boxes was a phereomone to attract the bee. However, the baited hives did not stop the Africanized Honey bee. Because the climate in Texas is comparable to Africa's, the bees were able to adapt. ^l6

It is no exaggeration to say that honey bees are an irreplaceable part of food crop production.^l7 The honey bee is an unusually industrious insect because it visits a wider variety of flower types than any other insect. The honey bee may make a dozen or more trips from the hive and it may visit several thousand flowers; but on each trip it usually confines its visit to one plant species. ^l8

The greatest impact the Africanized Honey bee creates for Texas will be in the pollination of crops. Honey bees account for 80% of insect pollination of agricultural crops in the United States. While researching this paper, I asked my father, Michael Damon, who is a farmer here in Texas, which of his crops the honey bee pollinated and how important the honey bee is to crop pollination. He stated that the honey bee is an essential part of pollination of his alfafa hay, cotton and soybean crops. However, the corn and peanuts he grows are self pollinating and do not require assistance from the honey bee.

Although the United States has known for many years that there would be an invasion of Africanized Honey bees, between 1971 and 1988 only $5-8 million was spent for research and prevention. If this amount was spent annually, maybe we would know more about this bee and how it lives.^l9

Brianne Damon

                          
1  Brian Sterk, The Africanized Honey Bee,
   (Brownsville, Sterk & Associates, 1994), p. 2.
2  Ibid; p. 2
3  Ibid., p. 25
4  Kathleen Davis, Dave Mayes, KillerBees, (New
   York: Dillon Press, 1993) p. 14.
5  Ibid. p. 37
6  William L. Godmerac, Bees, Beekeeping, Honey
   and Pollination (Connecticut: AVI PuDlishing
   Company, Inc., 1980) p. 29.
7  Ibid. p. 30
8  The Hive and the Honey Bee, ed. E. L. Atkins,
   et al (Illinois: Dadant & Sons, Inc., 1976) p.
   61.
9  Ibid. p. 68
10 Ibid. p. 52
ll Richard E. Bonney, Hive Management-A
   Seasonal Guide for Beekeepers (Vermont: A
   Garden Way Publishing, 1990) p. 52.
12 Atkins, p. 71
13 Davis, Mayes, p. 31
14 Phillip J. Hamman, "Bees in Homes", House
   and Landscape Pests, (L-1791 -1980), pg.1.
15 Laurence Pringle, Killer Bees (New York:
   Morrow Junior Books, 1990) pgs. 32-33.
16 Davis/Mayes, p. 44
17 "KeepingBees in Perspective" - Straight Talk,
   Mike Moeller, p.1
18 Lonnie Standifer, S. E. McGregor, UsingHoney
   Bees to Pollinate Crops, (L-549, 1977) p.2.
19 Pringle. p. 44
                          



Anyone interested in competing in the 1998 essay contest should consult
 the 1998 4-H Beekeeping Essay Contest Announcement and Rules.




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Last modified: July 18, 1997 by Rudolf Bendixen