Bee School

Bees collect honey and pollen from all kinds of meadows and fields. They never get lost, they know which plants to land on, and they have mastered the craft perfectly. But how do bees know how to do all this? It turns out that they learn in "bee school". I wonder what and when does the "queen" bee learn?

21 days after laying an egg, a young worker bee hatches. Like a white sheet of paper (young bees are really "grey"!), she's all bark. Responsible bees will certainly not let such a little bee fly free alone.

1-2 days

The bee familiarises herself with the hive and cleans her cell and other empty holes so that honey can be poured into them or new eggs can be laid.

3-13

Once you're settled, you can get down to more serious business. The baby bees start to take care of the next generations: feeding the new larvae, feeding and combing the Queen (the Royal Majesty can't do much by herself) and helping to feed the young drones (how pampered they are!). After a visit to the Queen, the worker bees also carry the very important pheromone she gives off around the hive to let everyone know that the Queen is alive and well and that there is no need to breed a new ruler. The young bees also remove dead bees by carrying them as far away from the hive as possible. This protects the home from dangerous diseases.

8 - 18 days

Teenage bees are trusted with more responsible jobs. They take over the nectar from the bees that carry it and pour it into the hive's wells, storing pollen. They are also air-conditioned, using their wings to ventilate the hive and keep it at the right temperature and with the right air circulation. Another important function associated with the flapping of the wings is the thickening of the nectar, where gusts of air remove water from the nectar and encourage it to turn into honey.

12 - 35 days

On the 12th day of life, the bee is mature enough to start producing wax. Young queens work as builders, among other jobs appropriate to their age. They make perfect hexagonal brood boxes and enlarge the hive, as well as repair damaged brood boxes and "cover" them with larvae or honey.

18 - 21 days

This time is very important. It is the time when the bees perform their last duties before heading out into the fields - protecting the hive from intruders. This is a kind of compulsory military service for bees. They squeeze in at the entrance to the hive and keep a watchful eye out for anyone who wants to get inside. Since there are countless bees living in the hive, it would be impossible to remember their faces, so the bees distinguish each other by the smell of their hive. When bees detect an intruder, they attack it with their stinger. More than one of them is killed in the line of duty.

22 - 42 days

The last job a bee will do before it dies is to carry nectar. During her first flights, the bee looks around - making bigger and bigger circles around the hive and taking in landmarks that are important to her to avoid getting lost. In this way, she creates a veritable Google map in her imagination and always finds her way home. The longer she flies, the further the nectar collector can go. Eventually, she learns to dance and uses her belly dance to tell the other bees about the nectar-filled fields.

Although worker bees only live for about six weeks in summer, they master a wide range of tasks during this period. Would you like to go to such a bee "school"?