Honey Bees are not indigenous to North America but were introduced by early immigrants. They are responsible for honey, beeswax and most important of all, the fertilization of many of our crop-bearing plants. Bees are social insects living in large colonies of 20,000 to 80,000 individuals. There are three castes in the bee society: the workers, the queen and the males (drones). Most people only see the workers. The queen may live as long as five years, but is less productive after the second year. New queens are reared on "royal jelly", a special secretion, those becoming workers only receive this special mix for three days. In Southern California the European Honey Bee has been completely replaced in the wild by the more aggressive Africanized version. The only European varieties left are found in beekeeper's colonies. The Africanized honey bee is closely related to the European honey bee used in agriculture for crop pollination and honey production. The two types of bees look the same and their behavior is similar in many respects. Neither is likely to sting when gathering nectar and pollen from flowers, but both will sting in defense if provoked. A swarm of bees in flight or briefly at rest seldom bothers people. However, all bees become defensive when they settle, begin producing wax comb and raising young.

Bees are responsible for more deaths in the United States than any other insect, due to allergic reactions.

Life Cycle:

Under ordinary conditions, the worker bee has a developmental period of about three weeks. Drones develop in 24 days, and queens in 15 days. If drones are kept in a queen-less hive, they live three to four months, but normally their lives are very short. Workers live 5 weeks (during peak honey season) to 3 months.

Main Characteristics

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