Honey Bees - a mental block

[Deb London]

Are there any quick tips for IDing Honey Bees in the field that members know of? I have a complete and utter mental block when trying to determine whether a bee is a Honey Bee. Might sound daft but I have been plucking up the courage to fess up for a while. Can anyone help?

[SheffieldLass]

Find a bee keeper and hang around their hives for a while (adequately protected of course ). You'll quickly learn the appearance. Though some colonies may be dark brown (English strain) and some might be golden brown (italian strain) and some intermediate ...

Also you'll learn he appearance fo the drones too from about this time of year onwards (for a few months) as they'll be beginning to build up in numbers and start 'droning' around the hive, bigger, bumbling things than the female workers and with bigger eyes. But they don't stray far from the hives, except upwards to the 'drone' level in search of virgin queens, as the only things they do are eat food provided by the female workers, c rap and go looking for sex ...

You'll be extremely lucky to see a queen as they only leave the hive to mate (one flight only) or if the hive swarms, when she'll be somewhere in the middle of the swarm.

[JRsbugs]

Two quite easy features to recognise workers. The have a big, long abdomen which often looks almost tubular in shape, and hairy eyes. You can also notice the corbiculum which are more like those of a bumble bee, flat and shiny where Andrena females have a lot of hairs on the hind tibia. Take a look at some honey bee pics and you will see what I mean.

Janet

[Deb London]

Thanks both very much for the advice.

The only Honey Bees I have spotted for sure were in a swarm, so I couldn't miss them. The queen was probably in there somewhere then?

Interesting description of the drones SL. I'll try not to make a sexist comment at this point.

Thanks for the pointers Janet.


The only time I knew what I was looking at.

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by Deb London

Interesting description of the drones SL. I'll try not to make a sexist comment at this point.

The females have the upper hand. They are the only one that can sting, the males can't. And the female workers force the drones out of the hive at the end of the season to die, as they are of no use to the survival of the hive over the winter, would be just a drain of resources. Also check out what happens to the males if they are 'fortunate' enough to mate with a virgin queen .....

[Deb London]

Ha, ha, brilliant. I have the answers for the man who was joking with me the other day about the males getting away with not doing any work.

[Gill Catton]

There are very few solitary bees that are as big as a honeybee, I think the leaf cutters are close but are more furry, chunkier with big jaws. So most can be ruled out on size alone really.

[Deb London]

Thanks Gill. Size is something I hadn't considered. Just been peering very closely at some bees on bramble. Managed a couple of shots with the phone. I'll try and get them off the phone later for ID (will ask my "technical advisor"). Will send any details to the relevant recorder as well.

[Deb London]

These are the pictures. Taken on a phone. Are these Honey Bees?





Thanks.

[Gill Catton]

Yes both honey bees

I went on a solitary bee course once and the trainer kept killing honey bees to show people the difference in wing cells which to my mind was perhaps not really needed because.. well they just look different, the size is a big part of that.

Don't be fooled by the colours on the abdomen either as they can be very varied from black/ brown to almost bright orange.