b'WELCOME TO THE HIVEWelcome to The HiveThe Social Organisation of HoneybeesHoneybeesbuildindividualcellsonthewaxsheetmentionedbeforewhich collectively becomes whatwe commonly known as honeycomb. The queen lays one egg per cell inside the honeycomb. Within 3 days these eggs will hatch and become bee larvae and within 24 days a worker bee will emerge from larger cells and drones from the smaller cells. During the emerging process each larvae sheds their old skin leaving it behind the cell turning the honeycomb into a brownish colour. These sheets will later be replaced ensuring they can build new combes and further grow the colony. There are three kinds of honeybees: drones, queens, and workers.Worker honeybees usually are non-reproductive females. Workers perform all brood care, hive maintenance, and hive defence tasks in their colony. Rather than specialising in one job only, each worker progresses through colony tasks in predictable order based on age. Worker bees are also known for their fascinating waggle dance. When a worker bee finds an area with good source of nectar and pollen, they make their way back to their hive and inform the workforce. It is dark inside the hive. To pass the message they perform a waggle dance, tracing out the figure of an 8 shape in the dark on the combe. Bees around the performer will pick up the message by physical touch with their antennae and from the vibration resonating from the combe. The waggle dance delivers three important messages:Qualityofthesource:thebettertheperformanceisthebetterthe discovered areaThe size of the loops will determine how far is the destinationThe angle of the axe to the vertical shows the direction of the source - the angle will show the way to their destination from the sunDrones are male honeybees. They are responsible for passing the colonys genes on to the next generation by mating with queens from other colonies. They gather in Drone Congregation Areas (DCA) waiting for young queens from different colonies to visit and mate with. Drones only mate once and die right after. Honeybee queens are the reproductive females of the species. Throughout most of the colony life cycle, the queen is the only reproductive female in the colony and is responsible for producing all the offspring within the colony.After mating with several drones at the Drone Congregation Areas, a queen stores up to 100 million sperm within her oviducts. However, only five to six million are stored within the queens spermatheca. The queen uses only a few of these sperm at a time to fertilize eggs throughout her life. If a queen runs out of sperm in her lifetime, new generations of queens will mate and produce their own colonies. They lay 1000-1500 eggs during a day while worker bees monitor the queens performance. If they arent satisfied with her performance worker bees will starve the queen and look for a new leader. Honeybee queens control the sex of their offspring, as eggs pass through the ovary into the oviduct, a queen can determine whether a particular egg is fertilized or not. Unfertilized eggs become drone honeybees, while fertilized eggs develop into female workers and queens. Female workers do not mate, but they can lay infertile eggs, which in turn become male honeybees.How Do Honeybees Choose Their Next Queen? First, the queen lays more eggs. Then, the worker bees choose up to twenty of the fertilized eggs, seemingly at random, to be potential new queens. When these eggs hatch, the workers feed the larvae a special food called royal jelly. This helps larvae to grow larger than the drone and worker bee larvae.Watch this space for some sweet Kelly Group honey jars in the future!The Networker Spring 2022 47.'