Clasification of the mellifera bee
The honey bee called Apis mellifera L. is an insect which belongs to the Apidae family and to the Apis genre; this genre includes 4 species, social all of them:
• Apis mellifera L. Its ´the domestic bee and it´s found in tropical zones of Europe (Mediterranean Zone) and Africa, from where it has extended to the rest of the world (Asia and America).
• Apis cerana. This species is found in Asia.
It has a parasite called varroa but it does not cause serial problems to this species, although it does cause them to Apis mellifera. It´s an arachnids which feeds during adult and immature states (hemolinfa). Within this species exist references as old as Apis mellifera.
Both of them live in closed nests (rocks, tree holes...). It´s necessary to point out the difference between a nest and a beehive. A nest is the natural home of a swarm, being the beehive its artifitial home, constructed by men.
Besides of these species exist other ones:
• Apis dorsata and Apis florea. It´s found in Asian tropical zones. They live inside opened nests, just like wasps. Their collection is on natural ways. When there´s only one honeycomb and is not so productive, very few apiculture can be made.
If we center on Apis mellifera there are 23 races o subspecies distributed among 7 zones: Southern and Eastern Europe, Northern and Western Europe (Apis mellifera sp ibérica), Mediterranean Islands, North, South, East and West of Africa. In Europe the most well-known bee types are 4:
• A. mellifera mellifera. Originary from Northern Europe and western-center of Russia to the Iberic peninsula. Dark brown coloured, almost black.
• A. mellifera ligustica. Originary from Italy, it´s very popular world-wide. Clear coloured and it has long yellow segments on its abdomen. It´s a very docile bee.
• A. mellifera carnica. Originary from Southern Alpes of Austria, brown or grey coloured. Very popular for a lot of apicultors in reason of docility.
• A. mellifera caucasica. This bee is lead-grey coloured ans is oririnary from the tall valleys of Center Caucasian.
Within a bee colony there are the queen bee, the drones and the workers, each one of them with an specific role:
The Queen
Its main task consists on putting eggs and the workers must feed it. Queens are born in little cages called "realeras", which are larger than normal ones and acorn shaped. The workers feed this larva with royal jelly, which makes it fertile and it differences from normal workers. Only subsistes one queen for each beehive.
Days after its birth, when warm weather, the queen goes out in order to be fecunded by the drones and this fecundation will be for the rest of its life, which will be dedicated to egg putting so that new workers could be born. The queen puts an egg in every cage. If it is fecunded, it will give a worker; if not, it will give a drone.
The life of a queen can be until 5 years old, although normally they are changed by natural way at 2 or 3 years old.
The Drones
The drones are born from not-fecunded eggs, they are quite largger than workers, with a squarer abdomen, big and adjacent eyes. Their functions, besides fecunding the queen, are quite discused. But it´s thought that they help to keep warm the beehive and also to hand nectar out.
The Workers
These are the true workers of the beehive. Since a new worker is born it goes through different tasks within the beehive: making wax, cleaning, feeding, guarding and for last, pecorating.
The waxers make and take out the little cages; the feeders feed the larvas and the queen, the cleaners clean up the beehive, the guardians are in charge of protection, and the pecorators go out to collect nectar and pollen from fowers, and water also.
A worker can fly a 3km distance, although normally they don´t far away more than 1km in search of flowers. When a bee finds a good place to pecorate, returns to the beehive and by a special dance informs the other ones of the position and distance of that place.
The life of a worker varies, those which were born on January-February live for three months, those ones on April-May between 28 and 40 days, on July-August live for 80 days, on October over than a month and a half, and on November over 140 days. In winter they live more time because the number of bees which are born is almost null because the queen does not put eggs during this season and that´s why they have to survive until new workers began to be born so it´s possible for the colony to survive.