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AERIAL HONEYBEE HIVE------PHOTO'S BY RFM APIAN STING
OPERATION, INC.
Honeybees, established with combs, are seen more
frequently hanging from tree limbs or on the face of structures.
Honeybees construct beautiful waxen combs, containing thousands of
hexagonal cells. These chambers may contain honey, pollen, brood,
and----regrettably; disease organisms and parasites. Feral bees, such as
those seen above, may pose a threat to commercial
operations and should be moved from the vicinity of apiarized colonies.
Honeybees distribute their activities among three
variant castes, queen, drone, and worker.
Queens ( gravid females ) produce and place eggs
into the wax cells. All fertile eggs are produced by the queen who
maintains pheromonal control of many hive functions. She does not appear
to instigate swarming. However, her absence from a departed swarm will
normally prompt the bees to either return to the parent hive or search
incessantly for her.
When resting swarms are treated with pesticides,
the novice may not thoroughly eradicate all the bees. The survivors may
take on a very aggressive attitude and, if the queen is displaced at a distance, the remaining
bees will search the vicinity for her. This activity can cause much
aggravation for bees and humans.
Drones are broader-bodied than queens or workers.
They possess exceptional eye sight and aeronautical astuteness which
assist them in copulating with a queen. It is necessary for queens to
mate with several superiorly fit drones in order to produce thousands of
successful offspring in her lifetime.
Workers are infertile females, relegated to
fulfilling numerous hive duties. They sacrifice themselves for the good
of the colony and instinctively defend their hive to the death. They
are, by far, the most numerous caste and can number well into the
thousands.
Displaced hives of honeybees may often require
euthanasia. Due the arrival of Africanized bees in Florida, DACS
currently recommends destruction of feral honeybee colonies and the
practice of good beekeeping procedures.
Honeybees are
helpful to man and agriculture.
Their preservation is cherished by those who know of their
usefulness as pollinators. Honeybees have come to depend more on good beekeeping practices since
the importation of overly protective strains, bacterial and viral
disease, and parasites which threaten their survival. The removal of
feral honeybees is necessary to promote the success of bees managed in apiaries. Apian Sting Operation is dedicated and prepared to
both preserve managed honeybees and to remove feral colonies from the
population.
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