1 Introduction
Pollinators are animals that allow 75% of flowering plants to reproduce; these plants
include most fruits, vegetables, and nuts, where 87 of the leading 115 food crops are
dependent on pollination services, where pollinators contribute an estimated
one-third of global food production. Pollinators also play a key role in our agricultural economy, where they contributed more than $24 billion to the United States’
economy in 2014, and honey bee pollination services specifically contributed more
than $15 billion.
There are thousands of bee species. Most wild (native) bees in America are
solitary. Honey bees, our most commonly managed pollinator, were imported to
the Americas from Europe during colonial times in the 1600s. These are called
European or Western honey bees; in this chapter, we will refer to them as European
honey bees.
Honey bees are social insects; each colony has one queen, several drones, and
thousands of worker bees living in a wax comb hive that they built themselves. In
this hive, they store food and rear their brood (eggs, larvae, and pupae). Work
responsibilities are caste based. The queen bee is responsible for reproduction and
maintaining colony population; a drone’s sole responsibility is to mate with a queen;
worker bees do all other duties in maintaining the colony. Worker bee responsibilities include rearing the brood, caring for the queen, maintaining the wax comb
structure, defending the colony, and foraging. Plant pollination occurs when worker
bees are foraging on their flowers. The nectar and pollen gained from foraging are
prepared and stored in the hive as the primary food supplies, where the nectar is
converted to honey. When flowers begin to bloom again in the spring, the queen
begins to lay eggs as worker bees leave the hive to forage and pollinate plants along
the way, continuing the cycle. How do honey bees execute their colony responsibilities in a systematic way? They communicate with each other using pheromones
and dances. Pheromones are chemical substances secreted from the sender’s glands
and received by the recipient’s antennae or other body parts. All colony members
from queen to even brood members can produce pheromones. Besides pheromones,
honey bees also perform different dances to convey information or request services.
The most famous dance is the “waggle dance,” which conveys the direction and
distance of a food resource.
For a very long time, the majority of honey bees in the Americas had been
European honey bees. However, a scientist in Brazil imported pure African honey
bees in 1956 with the intention of breeding more tropically adapted honey-producing
bees. Just 1 year later, 26 African queen bees escaped into the wild. Since then, those
African queens have hybridized with feral European honey bee populations, becoming Africanized honey bees (AHBs). Six decades later, Africanized honey bees have
spread from South America through Central America and to North America. By
2009, Africanized honey bees had been confirmed in ten southern US states.
Africanized and European honey bees are cousins; they are of same species
though different strains, and they share the basic characteristics. The Africanized
1 Understanding, Conservation, and Protection of Precious Natural Resources: Bees
3
Pollinators are animals that allow 75% of flowering plants to reproduce; these plants
include most fruits, vegetables, and nuts, where 87 of the leading 115 food crops are
dependent on pollination services, where pollinators contribute an estimated
one-third of global food production. Pollinators also play a key role in our agricultural economy, where they contributed more than $24 billion to the United States’
economy in 2014, and honey bee pollination services specifically contributed more
than $15 billion.
There are thousands of bee species. Most wild (native) bees in America are
solitary. Honey bees, our most commonly managed pollinator, were imported to
the Americas from Europe during colonial times in the 1600s. These are called
European or Western honey bees; in this chapter, we will refer to them as European
honey bees.
Honey bees are social insects; each colony has one queen, several drones, and
thousands of worker bees living in a wax comb hive that they built themselves. In
this hive, they store food and rear their brood (eggs, larvae, and pupae). Work
responsibilities are caste based. The queen bee is responsible for reproduction and
maintaining colony population; a drone’s sole responsibility is to mate with a queen;
worker bees do all other duties in maintaining the colony. Worker bee responsibilities include rearing the brood, caring for the queen, maintaining the wax comb
structure, defending the colony, and foraging. Plant pollination occurs when worker
bees are foraging on their flowers. The nectar and pollen gained from foraging are
prepared and stored in the hive as the primary food supplies, where the nectar is
converted to honey. When flowers begin to bloom again in the spring, the queen
begins to lay eggs as worker bees leave the hive to forage and pollinate plants along
the way, continuing the cycle. How do honey bees execute their colony responsibilities in a systematic way? They communicate with each other using pheromones
and dances. Pheromones are chemical substances secreted from the sender’s glands
and received by the recipient’s antennae or other body parts. All colony members
from queen to even brood members can produce pheromones. Besides pheromones,
honey bees also perform different dances to convey information or request services.
The most famous dance is the “waggle dance,” which conveys the direction and
distance of a food resource.
For a very long time, the majority of honey bees in the Americas had been
European honey bees. However, a scientist in Brazil imported pure African honey
bees in 1956 with the intention of breeding more tropically adapted honey-producing
bees. Just 1 year later, 26 African queen bees escaped into the wild. Since then, those
African queens have hybridized with feral European honey bee populations, becoming Africanized honey bees (AHBs). Six decades later, Africanized honey bees have
spread from South America through Central America and to North America. By
2009, Africanized honey bees had been confirmed in ten southern US states.
Africanized and European honey bees are cousins; they are of same species
though different strains, and they share the basic characteristics. The Africanized
1 Understanding, Conservation, and Protection of Precious Natural Resources: Bees
3