APPEARANCE
This creature has 4 wings, 5 eyes and 6 legs with much hair covering the whole body. Like other insects, bee body is divided by three sections, namely head, chest and belly. Queen bees are the biggest, next are drones and worker bees. These small creatures have a unique way of organizing which we - human beings - have to learn.
COLOR
Bees are in black, light yellow and light brown. Honey bees are the first insects which can differentiate colors. They can differentiate yellow, blue and UV rays. However, they cannot differentiate red which seems to be similar to green to their eyes.
CHARACTERISTICS
Bees have a very special stomach to contain nectar and female bees have a sting to attack enemies. Bees suck nectar through tongue and transmit down the belly through mouth. They also operate vice versa when returning to the nest to discharge hone to feed other bees. During the course of life cycle, one bee creates honey not as much as one teaspoon. In order to make around ½ kilo of honey, bees have to fly around 88,000 km and suck nectar from nearly 2 million flowers.
HABITS
Unlike other insect species, bees do not sleep during the winter but cluster together closely in the nest. One worker bee often fly away from its nest around 2 – 3 km to forage for nectar. On the way, it usually lands on 50 – 1000 flower buds before returning to the nest.
COLONY
Every nest consists of around 50 to some tens of thousands bees but sometimes just 10 ones. One honey bee nest contains one Queen bee, some hundreds of drones and thousands of worker bees. A nest is a densely-packed group of hexagonal cells made of beeswax. The bees use the cells to store honey to raise young bees. Under leadership and management of the Queen bee, there are two functional groups, namely drones and worker bees in which workers account for the most.
LIVING ENVIRONMENT
Honey bees can fly around 24km per hour with wing-beat frequency around 11,000 times per minute. In case the population explodes in one nest, the newly-born Queen bee is allowed to survive but it must fly far from the nest to make a new nest. Bees usually make nest on branch fork, tree, wall and hollowed-out places or sometimes on roof or chimney. There are most of worker bees in one nest.
DIET
Bee food includes flowers. Honey bees produce honey from pollen. Bees store honey in nest cells.
Flower is a food source for bees. Pollen supplies bee with fat, protein and mineral vital to human. Bees collect pollen and nectar from flowers. They eat such pollen and nectar to produce honey. When flying to forage for food, they unintentionally bring pollen among flowers to facilitate pollination.
SELF-DEFENCE
To protect the nest, worker bees always guard the entrance of the nest with strict security precautions. Bees become furious when their nest is threatened. They attack anybody who intends to steal their honey. They secrete one chemical to give the alarm to other bees for reinforcement.
REPRODUCTION
The role of queen bees is laying eggs. One Queen bee may lay around 1 million eggs during their life cycle in 5 years. Bee eggs are as small as pinhead, white-colored in pear-like shape. After three days, eggs become tiny white creatures like trichinas. The role of queen bee is laying eggs while that of drones are mating Queen bee. Every 24 hours, one Queen bee reproduce 1,500 worker bees. It takes around 21 days for mature worker bees to break wax cover to come out from the cell while it takes around 24 days for drones to mature.
LIFE CYCLE
The average lifespan of one worker bee is around 4 weeks in spring and summer. Worker bees die soon after losing their sting. In cool weather, their lifespan may last up to 6 weeks. However, in autumn and winter, without flying to forage for nectar, they can live up to some months.
BAD EFFECTS
Bees are one of most dangerous insects in Vietnam, in which there are wasps and plough-beam bees.
Among bee venom, venom of wasps and bumble bees are the most poisonous. After stinging, they do not leave their sting like honey bees but survive to bite some more people. Those who step on bumble bees’ nest and be stung by them may be able to walk with some more steps.
BENEFITS
Honey bees are the most important bee species because they bring lots of benefits to human life. In reality, bees play a very key role in the natural world and agricultural production process of human beings. Venom of honey bees is used to treat rheumatic heart disease, neuritis, polyarthritis, asthma, spinal ache and high blood pressure. Honey bee provides not only nutrients to human body but also beauty to everybody. Honey bee can replace sugar, foster resistance and prevent infection.
PREVENTION
- Avoid accessing to bee if unnecessary.
- Do not rouse, annoy or hurt bees (they will secrete a chemical to warn other bees) and not stick beehive when unnecessary and unsafe.
- Do not leave houses and floors uninhabited so that bees may make nest.
- Early discovering beehive and destroying in crowded areas or within houses. Newly-made nests should be destroyed immediately.
- When entering the forest, avoid wearing bright-colored and motley clothes. Do not use perfume, shampoo and cosmetics of sweet smelling. Do not walk barefoot and wear big clothing. Wear cap with a visor, gloves and thick and close clothing.
- When bees fly to you, do not run away. Just stand still and bees will not see you.
- Need to propagandize health education to the community so that residents know risks, harmful effects and bad consequences of bee stings, especially wasps. Following and detecting beehives near the house to exterminate.
FIRST AID
To promptly save victims stung by wasp and prevent harmful effects and serious complication which may badly affect health and even life, victim must be found and given first aid as soon as possible within 10-15 minutes. This issue must be cared most in case victims are stung by bees with poisonous venom such as wasps.
Bee stings cause swell and hurt due to venom. In this case, the first thing is to take out sting immediately and never press or squeeze it out. Taking out sting will help decrease venom entering the body. Some people may be easily allergic to bee venom, which can lead to fatality.
First aid solutions include washing bee stings with soap or light alkali then applying a cold compress, after that promptly taking the victim to hospital with relevant conditions.