For experienced beekeepers, not only can they judge whether the bee colony is normal from the situation of bees flying outside the hive, but even if they grab a bee casually, they can also judge their approximate age.
Bees are highly socialized social insects, as a large number of people breeding economic insects, bees are not only the main pollinators in nature, but also our favorite honey processors, so the relationship between bees and our humans is closely related, and even can be said to affect the survival of human beings.
Due to the highly socialized division of labor, the bees in the bee colony have different laws of action according to different tasks, under these divisions of labor, the bees have formed different seasons, different labor burdens under different lifespans, such as spring and summer worker bee lifespan, usually only about one month, while winter worker bees can reach more than 180 days.
Of course, as a laborer in the bee colony, the worker bee is naturally the direct creator of our honey, but because of the excessive number, it is usually difficult to attract the attention of the beekeeper, but a queen bee colony with only one queen, usually the beekeeper is most concerned, because the queen bee is the only normal childbear in a bee colony, that is, the queen bee is related to the rise and fall of the entire bee colony, so whether it is a bee researcher or a beekeeper, it is spent a lot of time on the queen of the bee to study, the queen's every move, Today, it can be said that it is the most studied in a bee colony.
The queen bee also has its own way of acting, such as the queen in the sexual maturity, that is, the pre-mating period, experienced beekeepers can be seen, in general, the queen bee out of the room 5 to 9 days is the most mating time, and when the queen meets the mating standard, the queen will show two behaviors, as long as it is experienced beekeepers can see, the two behaviors are:
(1) The genital cavity begins to close
(2) Constant twitching of the abdomen
These two behaviors are naturally visible to beekeepers, but to say why the queen bee will show such behavior, in fact, many beekeepers do not know, but if we contact the process of bee mating to see this problem, it is not difficult for us to think of its intentions, I have to say that these 2 acts hide a huge conspiracy, and directly lead to the death of male bees, the following bee tribe Xiaobian will come to reveal the secret to everyone.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > queen bee's "groom selection" process</h1>
Since it is said that the two behaviors of the queen bee cause the male bee to die, it is necessary to know why the male bee dies. In fact, if it is during the mating of the queen bee, as long as the queen is successfully mated, the male bee must die.
The queen bee generally reaches sexual maturity 3 days after leaving the house, and then begins to test flight, accompanied by marriage flight during the test flight. Due to the division of labor in the bee colony, the only role of the male bee in the bee colony is to provide sperm, so the male bee is to eat and drink enough in the air every day to wait for the queen who needs to mate, and the sexually mature virgin queen will release a pheromone, which will attract the male bee at a distance, and the male bee that travels in the air will chase the queen after being attracted by this smell, through a large number of male bees chasing, and finally a large number of male bees are eliminated, and the remaining male bees mate with the virgin queen, which is the "husband selection" process in the bee colony.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="24" > the mating process of the queen bee</h1>
After the end of the competition process, the remaining males did not only have one mating with the virgin queen, but multiple with the virgin queen until the virgin queen stored enough sperm, and then returned to the honeycomb to use the stored sperm for life.
It is worth mentioning that there is a process here that is more terrible, that is, when the male bee and the queen mate, the tail of the queen will jam the reproductive organs of the male bee after mating, and then the male bee will fall backwards to the ground to die, and the next male bee will pull out the internal organs of the previous male bee during the chase and continue mating until the last male bee is mated with the virgin queen. In this process, it is clear that in this case, as long as there is mating with the virgin queen, the male bees will eventually die.
This is the mating process of the queen bee, and imagine that it is not only difficult, but also risky.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="25" > 2 conspiracies</h1>
Regarding the two behaviors of the queen bee after sexual maturity, many people may have puzzled in the past, but combined with the mating process we mentioned above, these two conspiracies are indeed specially designed for the death of male wasps, and we will look at them separately.
(1) Opening and closing of the reproductive cavity: Obviously, this behavior is to jam the reproductive organs of the male bee, so that the male bee cannot break free, and then the reproductive organs are pulled off along with some internal organs. This may seem like a meaningless process, but in fact it is also very significant, for reasons that we will talk about later.
(2) Abdominal twitching: Regarding the twitching of the abdomen, it is actually purposeful, which is mainly related to the genital structure of the male wasp. The male bee's reproductive organs are not like other animals, which are like a meat ball, while the outside of the queen bee's reproductive cavity is a hard chitin structure.
So if you want to complete the mating process, as long as the queen bee does not take the initiative, the male bee even if it has the ability to win the sky is not helpful, after all, the structure is there, so it seems that the male bee "chases" the queen bee, in fact, the queen bee takes the initiative, and this process is to be completed, the queen must keep in the last few remaining male bees, the reproductive cavity is constantly open, then the problem here comes out.
If the female cavity of the queen bee is open for a long time, the male bee naturally will not die, but the sperm of the male bee is stored, and interested friends can grab a few sexually mature male bees to press the abdomen to see what the male bee's sperm is, that is, the yellow liquid, since it is liquid, it will flow, so if the queen bee keeps the reproductive cavity open for a long time, it will not reach the purpose of storing sperm, so after each male bee and the queen are mated, the queen always has to clip the genitals of the male bee, so that the sperm can be stored. At the same time twitching the abdomen to speed up the "digestion" of the male wasp's sperm.
That's why the queen bee exhibits these 2 behaviors before mating. Back to the above question, this process seems cruel, and consumes a large number of male bees, the male bees here are not only mating deaths, there are also a large number of male bees exhausted in the process of chasing, so is this evolutionary way not conducive to the development of the bee colony? In fact, on the contrary, because of the division of labor and cooperation of the bee colony, the male bee does not participate in other work in addition to the mating task, and the male bee is no longer needed after the queen bee mating is completed, so in principle, as long as the queen bee mating is completed, the less the pressure on the bee colony, so this is not only not an unscientific way of evolution, but also a scientific arrangement, what do you think about this? Let's talk about it.