A colony comprising 180,000 bees has been discovered hidden behind the ceiling of a Scotland home.
The bees could have been living at the back of the plasterboard for several years.
Massive Colony of 180,000 Bees
In total, three separate bee colonies were discovered. Each colony was thought to contain around 60,000 bees, which is a number that exceeds the average for a colony around this time.
Though the bees generally stayed undetected, the homeowner noted that when his grandchildren visited, they would share about listening to bees during the night.
The bees were removed with a special vacuum. They were also moved into hives that were temporary.
The bee colonies will not undergo monitoring for more than six weeks. They will also be fed to make sure that they can live through the winter.
Next year, the bees will be used to produce honey.
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Bee Colonies
For honey bee colonies, three kinds of adult bees are present. These are the drones, workers, and the queen bee. All members have their own tasks and functions.
Individual bees are unable to perform without the colony's support.
In most cases, a colony has a single queen bee and hundreds of drones during summer and late spring. The colony's social structure is maintained by the workers and the queen's presence.
For worker bees, labor activities may primarily depend on bee age but differ depending on colony needs.
With the size of the colony reaching up to 60,000, the colony's efficiency could also be improved.
It is easy to distinguish the queen from other colony members. Compared to other members of a colony, a queen bee's body is typically longer. This is especially the case during the period of egg-laying when their abdomen is quite stretched and elongated.
Queens are crucial when it comes to fertilized egg-laying. To establish strong colonies, the presence of egg-laying queens is extremely crucial. These queens could also produce as many as 2,000 eggs in just one day.
As for worker bees, they make the biggest chunk of the colony's population. Though all of these workers are female, they cannot produce any fertilized eggs.
These workers are responsible for foraging nectar and pollen, tending to drones and queens, keeping the hive ventilated, feeding larvae, defending the nest, and working on other functions necessary for the colony's survival.
All honey bee colony members also go through total metamorphosis. They go through the egg, larval, and pupal stages before they eventually transition into adulthood.
The larvae of honey bees are legless grubs that consume pollen, nectar, or honey. They also shred skin and molt a couple of times before going into the pupal stage.
After they undergo another molt, the pupae will become adult honeybees and start working on specialized colony tasks.
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