PLSC 311 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Corpus Allatum, Royal Jelly, Worker Bee
Lecture 10: Nutrition of the honey bee
- Colony’s food supply can be supplemented at certain times of the year by the
beekeeper (examples: sugar syrup, pollen substitutes)
The colony’s natural food supply:
- Basic supply for the honey bee and mostly derives from flowers
oConsists of: pollen, nectar (used to produce honey), and water
- Honey bees can be regarded as mostly herbivorous: but occasionally will also exhibit
carnivory (example: cannibalism of diploid drones or the consumption of chilled (dead)
brood)
- Technically the honey bee is omnivorous, largely herbivorous
Pollen:
- Most important nutritive source of protein for the honey bee colony
- Pollen is 6-28% protein
- Also supplies an important lipid component to the diet, but less then 5%
- Some minerals, and vitamins
- The forager finds a suitable cell and kicks off the 2 pollen pellets of her hind legs using
her mesothoracic legs
- Pollen is stored in cells of the comb, it is kneaded by other house bees which add some
honey and salivary gland secretions
oHelp prevent the pollen from fermenting
oForming “bee bread” for long term storage of pollen within the hive
- Estimated that each honey bee colony required 15-55kg of pollen annually
- Worker larvae and drone larvae do not receive all of the pollen directly some
components (amino acids) are actually extracted from the pollen grains and then get fed
to the larvae via the “brood-food” glands of the nurse adult worker bees
Nectar:
- By far the most important source of carbohydrates
oMostly simple sugar: sucrose, glucose & fructose
- For the honey bee colony, nectar ranges widely from 10-80% in sugars
- Usually collected by foragers from flowers, but also can be collected from sources
outside a flower (extrafloral sources)
- Carried in their honey sac (crop) to the hive
- Sometimes honey bees will collect something called “honey dew”
oAn excretory product at the tip of the abdomen of certain plant sucking insects
(examples: aphids, scale insects)
- Upon return of the forager, this nectar (rarely honey dew) gets passed to other worker
bees in the hive which will deposit it in suitable cells
- Eventually, the nectar is converted to honey
- An average colony required 60-80kg honey annually for its own nutrition
Water:
- Required to dilute stored honey, so can feed it to their larvae
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Document Summary
Colony"s food supply can be supplemented at certain times of the year by the beekeeper (examples: sugar syrup, pollen substitutes) Basic supply for the honey bee and mostly derives from flowers: consists of: pollen, nectar (used to produce honey), and water. Honey bees can be regarded as mostly herbivorous: but occasionally will also exhibit carnivory (example: cannibalism of diploid drones or the consumption of chilled (dead) brood) Technically the honey bee is omnivorous, largely herbivorous. Most important nutritive source of protein for the honey bee colony. Also supplies an important lipid component to the diet, but less then 5% The forager finds a suitable cell and kicks off the 2 pollen pellets of her hind legs using her mesothoracic legs. Estimated that each honey bee colony required 15-55kg of pollen annually. By far the most important source of carbohydrates: mostly simple sugar: sucrose, glucose & fructose. For the honey bee colony, nectar ranges widely from 10-80% in sugars.
