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Apiculture
Lecture 2
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Carniolan honey bee

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 The Carniolan honey bee (Apis mellifera carnica Pollmann 1879) was originally brought from
Yugoslavia and Austria, where the winters are cold and the honeyflows variable.
 They are popular in northern areas of the United States.
 Although they are a variety of Italian bees, Carniolans have a grayish black-brown body with
light hairs; the drones and queens are dark in color.
 In general, they were bred for fast buildup when the spring flow starts and to shut down brood
production early in the fall.
 They are known for their gentle disposition and low propolis and brace comb production, but they
can swarm if they are not given ample expansion room
 Currently the New World Carniolans are found in the United States, developed and improved by
Sue Cobey (University of California, Davis, and Washington State University).
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Races of Honey bees

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Races of Honey bees

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Advantages
1. Rapid population buildup in early spring; good for spring pollination and early nectar
flows.
2. Brood rearing decreases if available forage is diminished, thus conserving honey stores.
3. Exceptionally gentle; less prone to sting and easier to work.
4. Few brood diseases, so less medication may be needed
5. Economic honey consumers, therefore they overwinter on smaller honey/pollen stores.
6. Little robbing instinct, as they are long-distance foragers and are object oriented.
7. Can have very white wax cappings, making comb honey sections attractive to
customers.
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Races of Honey bees

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Advantages
 Overwinter well; queen stops laying in fall and small number of bees overwinter on fewer stores.
 By comparison to other races, forage earlier in the morning, on cool, wet days, and later into the
afternoon.

 Disadvantages
 Tend to swarm unless given enough room.
 Strong brood population depends on ample supply of pollen; can be slow to build up in summer if
forage is late or unavailable.
 Dark queen difficult to locate, making requeening operations slower.
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External structure of Honey bees

 The anatomy of the honey bee is similar to that of other insects, except for the specialization of
certain organs and structures needed by bees to carry out functions peculiar to them.
 Parts common to other insects include the head, thorax, and abdomen; the hard, waxy protein
covering (chitin); the free respiratory system with tracheae (no lungs); the ventral or bottom spinal
cord; and the open circulatory system (no veins or arteries);
 see the illustration on external anatomy on this page.
 Located on the head are five eyes, the antennae, and the feeding structures: the tongue (proboscis)
and the jaws (mandibles).
 The proboscis is for lapping and sucking fluids (like water, nectar, and honey), and the mandibles
are used for chewing pollen and, in the case of workers, shaping the beeswax.
 The thorax, or middle section of the bee, contains the muscles that control the two pairs of wings;
other muscles control the three pairs of legs.
 The legs have specialized structures and hairs on them that assist the bee in cleaning itself and in
collecting and carrying pollen.
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External structure of Honey bees

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 The armor-plated thorax is perforated with pairs of holes, called spiracles, which are part of the
breathing or respiratory system.
 The first pair, called the prothoracic spiracle, is the site where tracheal mites can be found.
 The second pair of spiracles is nonfunctional, and the last pair, although located on the thorax, is
really on the first abdominal segment, called the propodeum.
 The abdomen is the longest part of the bee and contains important organs. It is armor plated with
scalelike segments, called tergites (top segments) and sternites (bottom segments), that protect the
bee and keep it from drying out.
 It is also perforated with seven more pairs of spiracles. The bee’s sting, found on only the female
castes, is located in the tip of the abdomen.
 Wax-secreting glands, on the underside of the abdomen, and the scent gland are important
abdominal glands of the worker bees.
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Races of Honey bees

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External structure of Honey bees

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 The queen’s abdomen contains ovaries for egg production, a storage sac for drone semen, many
glands that produce pheromones and a sting, but no wax glands.
 The drone’s abdomen contains the male reproductive organs but has no wax glands and no sting.
 Sometimes a drone can be found with both male and female parts; these rare gynandromorphs
may actually be able to sting you
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Bee Vision
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 Bees have five eyes—three simple (ocelli) and two compound.

 The ocellus is a thick, biconvex lens or cornea that reacts only to light intensities.
 The compound eyes are composed of thousands of individual light-sensitive cells called
ommatidia (singular, ommatidium).
 It is with the compound eyes that bees perceive color, light, and directional information from
the sun’s rays.
 The color range of bee vision includes violet, blue, blue-green, yellow, and orange as well as
ultraviolet light, which is invisible to humans.
 Because they compete with each other for available pollinators, flowers that depend on bee
pollination are within these color ranges.
 The plants that succeeded in attracting bees with their color, nectar, and pollen gained an edge
over other plants during their evolutionary development.
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Bee Vision
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The structures and arrangement of the ommatidia permit polarized light to pass through
certain parts of each ommatidium at any given instance.
The sun’s position and the bee’s direction are the factors determining which section of the
ommatidia will receive full, partial, or shaded regions.
This pattern serves as a “compass” to the bee, giving directional information.
The bee is able to monitor these shifting patterns continually as it flies and, if necessary,
adjust its course.
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Antennae
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Most of the tactile (touch) and olfactory (smell) receptors of bees are located on the antennal
segments.
These receptors are in the form of seta or hair tactoreceptors and plates and recessed
chemoreceptors.
These sensory organs help guide bees both inside and outside the hive and enable them to
differentiate between hive, floral, and pheromone odors.
If the antennae are cut off, the bee will not be able to negotiate within and outside the
colony, will be unable to make comb, and will soon die.
Once odors or other tactile stimulation are detected, signals are transmitted down the nerve
cord to the brain.
There are about 3000 plate organs on each antenna of the queen, 3600 to 6000 in the worker,
and 30,000 in the drone.
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