honey bees are amazing

[insertnamehere]

the european honey bee (the species that also inhabits the americas) keeps its hive at 95 degrees celcius, +/- 1 degree. to produce heat, they cluster and shiver. if the ambient temperature is higher than this idea, they line up at opposite hive enterances, on one side facing out, on the other side facing it, and fan thier wings to create and air current. other bees will put water on the combs for evaporative cooling.

when bees are clustered outdoors, such as when swawrming to find a new home, if it starts to rain, the bees on the outside of the cluster will turn with their heads up and wings overlapping to create shingles that will keep the interior bees dry.

when a scout bee locates a good food supply, she will return to the hive and give directions to other bees through a "dance". if the food supply is in close range of the hive, she will make concentric circles indicating to fly in concentric circles around the hive to locate the source. if the food supply is farter from the hives, she makes a sort of figure 8 shape, starting up the middle, and giving direction in reference to the sun. straigh towards the sun, and she will go straight up on the comb. straight away from the sun is straigh down, and various angles with reference to the sun are those angles away from straight up. during this run, she wiggles her hind end. the speed of the wiggle indicates the approximate distance to the food supply. she then loops around the one side and back up the middle, then loops around to the other side, and back up the same line.

i hope you all find this as interesting as i do. im pretty amazied by honey bees. im taking a whole class on them right now. go ahead, ask me something about honey bees.

[camo]

what would you rather bee or a wasp?

[pip07]

how are honey nut cheerios made?

[insertnamehere]

what would you rather bee or a wasp?

theres not a verb there so i dont know what you mean, but i'll vote bee

[insertnamehere]

how are honey nut cheerios made?

honey nut cheerios are primarily sweetened by non-honey ingredients. im not sure how actual cereal production works, but i could tell you how bees make honey if you really wanted

[camo]

how do you bee a wasp?

[pip07]

honey nut cheerios are primarily sweetened by non-honey ingredients. im not sure how actual cereal production works, but i could tell you how bees make honey if you really wanted

seriously? Man, General Mills has been stickin' it to me all this time and I didn't even know it.

Hey, how about this, "are the bees in trouble, Howard?"

[insertnamehere]

how do you bee a wasp?

wasps, like bees, are members of the order hymenoptera, the order of social insects. unlike bees, wasps are predatious in nature. they are more streamline than bees, and more angular. they can also sting an unlimited number of times, whereas a honey bee can only sting once, its stinger being ripped out in the process and killing the bee. i love bumblebee in transformers, but honestly he looked more like a yellow jacket.

a brief summary of how to be a wasp.

[insertnamehere]

Hey, how about this, "are the bees in trouble, Howard?"

i'm not sure exactly what you mean by this, but actually, our honey bee is in trouble at the moment. colony collapse disorder is leading to the disappearance of many many bee colonies. honey bees, and in particular managed honey bees, and responsible for one-third of our food supply, through pollination. if this problem continues to worsen, it could have serious economic and environmental impacts.

no one is sure what is causing CDC although ecological changes could be behind it. when a beekeeper finds a hive that has suffered from CDC, he could be checking a hive that was fully and healthy only a few days ago, to find it completely empty. this is unlike what would be found if the bees suffered from a disease or had been poisoned, where the bottom of the hive would be covered with dead bees. the only remaining bees are usually ones that were too young to fly. many apiculture experts are like WTF :confused: divine rapture and a russian plot to destroy our agricultes, cause famine and weaken us as a country so that the U.S.S.R. can be reformed have been cited as possibly causes by less mentally stable people.

SAVE THE BEES!

[-T-]

How many Bees does it take to screw in a light bulb?

[taquitos]

when are the africanized killer bees coming to destroy us all?

[insertnamehere]

How many Bees does it take to screw in a light bulb?

bees don't use lightbulbs. they have poor vision and communicate with each other primarily through use of pheremones. however, bees can see ultraviolet light, and many bee-polinated flowers have ultiviolet patterns on them to attract the bees' attention and direct them to the center of the flower.

bees also see polorized light. this causes a dark band in their field of vision 90 degrees from where the sun in, that way they always know the location of the sun, even when it's cloudy.

[insertnamehere]

when are the africanized killer bees coming to destroy us all?

africanized bees are continuing their move north, and some predictions have been made about how they will spread, but until this point they have never moved in the way predicted, so it's hard to say. some think that the top of north carolina is as far north as they will spread, any father north being too cold for the bees that developed for life in africa.

if you are not allergic to bees, then its very, very unlikely that africanized bees will kill you. they have the same venom as the more docile european honey bee, the difference being that they are more aggressive and more will attack if you disturb their hive (as many as 5x more). a single foraging bee is really no danger given that you arent allergic. people have sustained thousands of africanized bee stings and survived. furthermore, given the number of people who have actually died from africanize bee stings in the US for the time period since the introduction of the bees to this country, you are more likely to die from injuries caused by spiny plants than to be killed by bees. 7x more people have died from lighting strikes while golfing in florida in that time period than have died from be stings.

however, if you are being chased by africanized bees, do not jump into a body of water. they will wait for you to come up for air.

[cookiepuss]

SAVE THE BEES!


I tried to get people here to be concerned about the fact the bees are dying off in a thread I made a while back and no one cared.:(

[b-grrrlie]

Funny thing, just half an hour ago I was watching CSI and they found a dead Apis mellifera Linnaeus in the murder scene...

[milleson]

Everything I know about bees, I learned from this thread.

[insertnamehere]

i'm glad i could teach you something about them. aren't they fuckin cool? you cant tell me some of that isnt fuckin cool.

also i stood in a swarm of 5.000 bees with no protective gear on and i didnt get stung. it was pretty sweet.

[milleson]

i'm glad i could teach you something about them. aren't they fuckin cool? you cant tell me some of that isnt fuckin cool.

also i stood in a swarm of 5.000 bees with no protective gear on and i didnt get stung. it was pretty sweet.

Does bee counting require 4 significant figures?

[b-grrrlie]

My parents used to keep bees to make their own honey, so I know some stuff about bees, but I didn't know about the rainshelter.

[insertnamehere]

Does bee counting require 4 significant figures?

hahaha, smartass

i realized i accidentally made it a period after the fact but i figured i'd just leave it cause all the non-americans would read it correctly and all the americans could figure out what i meant.

[cookiepuss]

I have two honey bees tattooed on my body. that's how fucking cool I think they are.(y)

[insertnamehere]

wanna start an apiary?

[cookiepuss]

yeah. actually I'd be down with that.

it's funny, i use to be pretty scared of bees when i was a kid. but I soon figured out that I got stung because i stepped on them or theatened them in some way. if one lands on me now I'm totally chill about it. and I love looking at them up close. they're all furry and cute. I'm a big fan of honey too. I don't wanna live in a world without hunny.

[milleson]

What is their "fur" made from?

[TAL]

I'm half-allergic to this thread.

[insertnamehere]

its basically little hairs that poke through their exoskeletons so that they can feel. they woudlnt be able to feel through their exoskeletons if they didnt have the hairs.

[milleson]

Are baby bees cute like puppies?

[b-grrrlie]

I'm a big fan of honey too. I don't wanna live in a world without hunny.
I'd like some hunny too. I think my hunny-days are over now... :(

[TAL]

I'm gonna use honey to kill myself when I've had enough of the world :)

[Jitters]

some think that the top of north carolina is as far north as they will spread, any father north being too cold for the bees that developed for life in africa.

Oh crap..... bad news for us.

This is actually interesting stuff to learn, what kind of class is it you're taking to learn this?

[insertnamehere]

Are baby bees cute like puppies?

no. they're grubs. ew.

Oh crap..... bad news for us.

This is actually interesting stuff to learn, what kind of class is it you're taking to learn this?

eh, we'll be fine. like i said, they arent really that big of a deal. and to answer your question, i'm taking "the honey bee and beekeeping"

at state you're required to take one "science, technology and society" class where they take something science and relate it to something humanitaires and they're all a bunch of bullshit really, but this one is interesting as hell, even though its really really easy. the first third of the class was honey bee biology, the second third was on actual beekeeping, and the final third is like... umm.... well stuff like "honey bees and warfare" and "honey bees in liturature and religion"

back in monty python and the quest for the holy grail type times, bee skeps (sic), hives woven from straw, were often catapulted over walls during seiges. it didnt really cause any damage, but it was a good way to completely fuck up an enemies manuvers. its apparently pretty hard to keep in any kind of fomration when you're being attacked by bees, and its particularly troublesome to get bugs inside your armor, especially stinging ones.

[Jitters]

back in monty python and the quest for the holy grail type times, bee skeps (sic), hives woven from straw, were often catapulted over walls during seiges. it didnt really cause any damage, but it was a good way to completely fuck up an enemies manuvers. its apparently pretty hard to keep in any kind of fomration when you're being attacked by bees, and its particularly troublesome to get bugs inside your armor, especially stinging ones.

That is so awesome, I wish I could learn stuff like that in school.

I demand more! Please? :)

[insertnamehere]

this is kind of an offshoot from bees, but one of the more interesting little facts that was brought up this semster...

there's types of birds called honey finders. they eat baby bees, honey, bees, and wax (and are one of the few animals that can digest wax). but, raiding beehives sucks. so they get other animals to do it for them. the most interesting example is with the greater honey finder, Indicator indicator, found in africa. this bird will find a human, and do a sort of display, showing spots on its wings and making certain calls, to get the human to follow it, going a little bit at the time, till it leads the human to a bee hive. the humans then harvest the honey, and to show thanks they give a comb to the bird. they believe that if you don't give the bird it's share, it will lead you next time to a dangerous animal. there are some other species that lead different animals, but i think this interaction between the birds and people is really amazing.

jitters if you go to state you can take bees and beekeeping :p

[Jitters]

jitters if you go to state you can take bees and beekeeping :p

I do need a little direction in life once I get out of high school.....

[insertnamehere]

what, you mean you'll reform your ways to go the straight and narrow of a beekeeper?


are you not sure what you're doing when you're done with highschool? what grade are you?

[Jitters]

I'm in the 12th grade and graduating in a couple of months.

I really hate to say it but I have absolutely no ambition in life when it comes to a career. I wish there was something I wanted to do after high school but I just don't know anything I'd want to do other than just doing something that doesn't drive me crazy :(

[Randetica]

I'm gonna use honey to kill myself when I've had enough of the world :)

i cum honey

now dying in my crotch would be the best death ever!

[Randetica]

oh wait this thread isnt about bees for any longer

[Jitters]

It still is, bees rock hard! Yeah!!!!

[insertnamehere]

randy, to die eating you out would be an honour.

jitters, i know how you feel man im in my 3rd year at university and i still feel that way. have you applied to colleges any?

to make this relevant, when bees sting, they produce and alarm pheromone that sort of marks you as a target for other bees. bee alarm pheremon smells like bananas.

[Randetica]

It still is, bees rock hard! Yeah!!!!

now start your honey career you lazy baby bee! mommy gets hungry

[Randetica]

randy, to die eating you out would be an honour.

haha, you know it

[-T-]

How about the wasp?

[TAL]

How about the wasp?

They fuck you like an animal.

[Jitters]

jitters, i know how you feel man im in my 3rd year at university and i still feel that way. have you applied to colleges any?

I haven't and don't plan to since I don't have any career in mind I think it would be pointless for me to do it.

[insertnamehere]

do you happen to have aim? its not listed. if you do you should add me so's we can talk. except right now im going to bed, so, you know, later talk.

[QueenAdrock]

BEE MOVIE WAS AMAZING! Well, not amazing but really cute.

[Planetary]

farter from the hives
lol

[insertnamehere]

BEE MOVIE WAS AMAZING! Well, not amazing but really cute.
i havnt seen it yet, but i want to. my prof said it was cute but he had some problems with the scientific accuracy of it. ohhhh university professors. his main qualm was that the main character was a worker bee and a male. worker bees are all female

[milleson]

What is the mass of a bee?

[TAL]

Do they drive beemers or hummers?

[milleson]

Do they bite?

[insertnamehere]

What is the mass of a bee?
you've got me on this one. all i can tell you is that the queen is the largest, then the drones, then the workers. also, in asian that is a "giant honey bee" that makes outdoor combs rather that inside hives

Do they bite?

no

[Drederick Tatum]

Hornets is where it's at. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v23GFc0KG4c)

[insertnamehere]

i think ive already explained how precicley bees can thermo regulate?

hornet gets pwnd. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUQt6TP2ank

fuckin' teamwork

[Drederick Tatum]

the absence of an accompanying Metallica soundtrack immediately put the hornet at a disadvantage.

[scotty]

i'm not sure exactly what you mean by this, but actually, our honey bee is in trouble at the moment. colony collapse disorder is leading to the disappearance of many many bee colonies. honey bees, and in particular managed honey bees, and responsible for one-third of our food supply, through pollination. if this problem continues to worsen, it could have serious economic and environmental impacts.

no one is sure what is causing CDC although ecological changes could be behind it. when a beekeeper finds a hive that has suffered from CDC, he could be checking a hive that was fully and healthy only a few days ago, to find it completely empty. this is unlike what would be found if the bees suffered from a disease or had been poisoned, where the bottom of the hive would be covered with dead bees. the only remaining bees are usually ones that were too young to fly. many apiculture experts are like WTF :confused: divine rapture and a russian plot to destroy our agricultes, cause famine and weaken us as a country so that the U.S.S.R. can be reformed have been cited as possibly causes by less mentally stable people.

SAVE THE BEES!

I heard on the radio today that two shipments of Apis mellifera were transported from Australia to the US to help deal with colony collapse, since we aren't having any issues with it here, and within 48 hours of the Aussie bees being introduced to the hives, they were all dead. US Ag had better sort out whats happening because any vegetable crops are going to fail. Although, having no bees may help with any weed problems. If this happened where I lived, noxious weeds like Camphora cinnamomum (camphor laurel) and Lantana camara (lantana) would be well controlled, but we'd have no fruit and veg industry.

[camo]

do bees wear run dmc tshirts?

[insertnamehere]

I heard on the radio today that two shipments of Apis mellifera were transported from Australia to the US to help deal with colony collapse, since we aren't having any issues with it here, and within 48 hours of the Aussie bees being introduced to the hives, they were all dead. US Ag had better sort out whats happening because any vegetable crops are going to fail. Although, having no bees may help with any weed problems. If this happened where I lived, noxious weeds like Camphora cinnamomum (camphor laurel) and Lantana camara (lantana) would be well controlled, but we'd have no fruit and veg industry.

are you sure they died? With CDC, the bees don't die. Well, maybe they do, but we're not sure. They disappear. When a bee colony gets a disease and the colony dies, the bee hive is filled with dead bees. With CDC its like this:

Tuesday - la la la... lets open up this hive here. everything looks a-ok. wow, what a healthy strong colony i've got. the honey harvest should be good this season

Thursday - let's see how that honey is coming al.... WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK? WHERED ALL MY FUCKING BEES GO. ALL THATS LEFT IS THE BEES THAT CANT FLY LIKE THE QUEEN AND THE ADULT BEES THAT JUST EMERGED THAT DONT HAVE A HARDENED EXOSKELETON!!!

probably the beekeeper woudlnt say all that, but, you get the point. and the remaining bees are alive i think. though im sure they die shortly thereafter with no colony to keep things running.

[insertnamehere]

oh yeah, but you're right about us being pretty fucked i think. 1/3 of our crops rely on commercial bee pollination, where beekeepers are hired to put their hives in an area to pollinate crops. there are really very few wild honey bee colonies left in the wild

also, its interesting that we imported bees from you. last time we did something like that, it got a little out of hand

[scotty]

I'm pretty sure that the interviewee said that the hives were empty and used the word 'died' in reference to it. Aussie beekeepers are shitting themselves that this is going to start happening to them as well. Whole sections of the agricultural industry will collapse if it happens.

[insertnamehere]

the head of the entomology department here i think is kind of a big deal in the whole researching honey bees thing... hopefully we've got a crack team on it. like i said, 1/3 of american crops rely on honey bee pollination. i know in my state, one of the biggest cash crops is cucumbers, and that relies pretty much entirely on commercial bee pollination. basically, if they cant figure this thing out and the problem continues to get worse, our economy is gonna be pretty fucked.

we grow a lot of feed corn here too (as in, corn for cows, not corn for people) and we have been in a really bad drought this year, so most of the corn crop failed.

i've kind of made up my mind that, if my lifestyle permits, when i grow up i want to keep bees. as a hobby, not like, as my main job. most beekeepers are "hobbyist" beekeepers. ive been really, really fascinated by this beekeeping class