The Bees in numbers

[La Ferme du Marais]

Some numbers :

Bee Classification  Proportion of species  pollination in an orchard  Economic Importance

Bee products  Wax  Standard quality honey  Annual Review of the hive

Bee Life  Bee and calories  Eggs and larvae bee  Foraging and flight

Beekeepers and institutes  Beekeeping in the world  Prehistory and History  Entomologists

Number of institutes specialized in beekeeping and many beekeepers (SAR 94-06-200)

Germany  Austria  France  Italy  England  Switzerland

Beekeepers 120,000    30,000  100,000  100,000    30,000    25,000

Executive Institute 18    3    7  18  12    1

Apic 6,700. / Inst.  10'000  14'000    5'000    2'000  25'000

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Foraging (RSA 92-06-184):
A bee in flight visits 20-300 flowers 1/4 - 1/2 h, 1km browsing on average and harvest:

• about 40 mg of nectar which will give 10 mg of honey
  
  
  
• or about 20 mg of pollen
  
  
  

A strong colony provides 10,000 to 15,000 bees per day. At a rate of 10 to 30 sorties a day: 
A colony day 100,000 foraging flights 100'000 km 2-30000000 flowers 4kg nectar 1 kg of honey So a good colony with a day of strong honey can be harvested 3 kg of honey.

A bee weighs empty 80 mg, maximum load of a bee: 70 mg! And a swarm of one kilogram has on average 10,000 bees
A bee is flying at the speed of 27 km / h and 800 km route around during his life. 
Number of wing beats: 75-150 per second

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Pollination in an orchard by different insects (RSA 98-11-462):

bees  bumble  wild bees  wasp  flies, beetles  other insects

80-85%  5-8%  2-3%  0.5%  5-10%  2-5%

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Economic importance (RSA 98-11-462):

• the importance of bees in the orchards is ten times higher than in beekeeping
  
  
  

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Wax production by a colony in a year: 1/4 to 1/2 kg
Bees consume 10 kg of honey and 1 kg of pollen to produce 1 kg of wax
1 dm ² contains, including two faces: 850 510 worker cells or male cells, weighs 12 g and can contain 1/3 kg of honey
Volume of a cell: 0.3 cm ^{3: can hold almost 1/2 g of honey or pollen 0.4 g (20 pairs of balls)}

mm	workers' cell	male cell	royal cell
depth  width	11-12  5.5 - 6	15  6.6 - 7	20 - 24  9

The wax melts at 63 ^o C and its specific weight is 0.96
Distance between frames: on center between 32 and 38 mm. Ideal distance for brood: 35 mm

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Nutritional composition of honey (RSA 91-09-320, 99-01-014) 100 g of honey contain:

• 1400 kJ or 335 kcal
  
  
  

17.1 g	water	17.1 g	(12.2 - 22.9 g)
82.4 g	carbohydrate	38.5 g	(25.2 - 44.4 g)	Fructose
		31.0 g	(24.6 - 36.9 g)	Glucose
		7.2 g	(1.7 - 11.8 g)	Maltose
		1.5 g	(0.5 - 2.9 g)	Sucrose
		4.2 g		Tri + other saccharides
0.5 g		0.266 g		Protein
		0.043 g		Nitrogen
		0.075 g	(0.05 - 0.1)	Amino acid
	Vitamin	<2.2 - 2.4 mg		Ascorbic acid (C)
		<0.36 mg		Niacin
		<0.32 mg		Pyridoxine (B6)
		<0.11 mg		Pantothenic acid
		<0.06 mg		Riboflavin
		<0.006 mg		Thiamin
	Minerals	13.2 - 168 mg		Potassium
		4.4 - 9.2 mg		Calcium
		1.9 - 6.3 mg		Phosphorus
		1.2 - 3.5 mg		Magnesium
		0.0 - 7.6 mg		Sodium
		0.06 - 1.5 mg		Iron
		0.03 - 0.4 mg		Zinc
		0.02 - 0.4 mg		Manganese
		0.003 - 0.1 mg		Copper

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Composition of honey, royal jelly and pollen (average in%) (RSA 95-03-78)

	Honey	Jelly	Pollen
Water  Carbohydrates  Proteins  Fat  Ash  PH	17.2    79.6    0.041  0.0    0.17  3.9	70.0  11.0  12.0  5.0  2.0  4.0	24.0  24.6  24.0  4.9

Specific weight: 1.39 to 1.46

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Honey quality standard (RSA 99-7-267):

• the water content must not exceed 18.5%
  
  
  
• HMF value should not exceed 15 mg / kg
  
  
  
• index invertase should not be below 10
  
  
  
• honeys whose conductivity exceeds 0.8 mS / cm are honeydew honeys
  
  
  
• Honeys with a conductivity less than 0.5 mS / cm are nectar honeys
  
  
  

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Proportion of species in Switzerland (RSA 96-1-27):

• 200 birds
  
  
  
• 51 fish
  
  
  
• 35 reptiles and amphibians
  
  
  
• 78 mammals
  
  
  
• 16'603 insects
  
  
  

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Bee Classification (RSA 93-11-428):
Classification of the animal kingdom

Invertebrates	Chordates
Branch Class Order Family Protozoa  sponges  coelenterates  to  molluscs  echinoderms  arthropods: crustaceans  arachnids  millipedes  insects: archiptères  orthopterans  Hemiptera  newroptera  beetles  Lepidoptera  Diptera  Hymenoptera: Formicidae (Ants)  vespids (wasps)  Bombinae (drones)  méliponinés (stingless bees)  bees (bees)	Prochordates vertebrates: fish  amphibians  reptiles  birds  mammals

• animal kingdom, phylum arthropods (exoskeleton made of chitin, body composed of articulated segments)
  
  
  
• insect class (1 million species): (head - thorax - abdomen, three pairs of legs)
  
  
  
• order Hymenoptera (100,000 species): (two pairs of membranous wings, mouth crusher - lapping)
  
  
  
• superfamily Apoidea (20,000 species): 6 families of insects feeding on nectar and pollen (important role in pollination) (-100 million years)
  
  
  
• family Apidae
  
  
  
• genus Apis, 4 species:
  
  
  
  
  • florea species (Southeast Asia, India, Persian Gulf, up to 500 m, 2 times smaller than our bee)
    
    
  • dorsata species (Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan, up to 1000 m, giant bee)
    
    
  • cerana species (Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan, Japan, China)
    
    
  • mellifera species (Middle East, Africa, Europe), 24 races:
    
    
    
    
    • European dark bee (France, northern and central Europe)
      
      
    • Apis mellifera ligustica (Italy)
      
      
    • Apis mellifera iberica
      
      
    • Apis mellifera caucasica
      
      
    • Carniolan honey bee
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  

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The bee larvae (RSA 93-11-452) multiply their weight by 1,500 in six days 
(food: pollen mixed with a little honey and water) 
The weight of a queen lays eggs during a spring day is equal to its own weight
An egg measuring 1.3 to 1.8 mm and weighs 0.132 mg 
A bee nymph consumes 4.5 mg 140 mg of pollen and honey
A queen lays up to 2,000 per day, 130,000 per year, 500,000 in life

Stadium	Queen	working	drone
egg  larva  pupa	3  5  8	3  6  12	3  7  14
birth	16 days	21 days	24 days
weight	0.16 - 0.21g	0.10g	0.23g
length	16 - 18 mm	12 - 13 mm	15 mm

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Duration of bee life (RSA 94-01-020)

Bees Summer	15-48 days (M, whole value domain)  20-35 days (M, high frequency)  60-70 days (H)
Winter bees	170 days or more (M)  to 243 days (H)

M: Average life of bees group. Age recorded the day or 50% of the group members are dead 
H: Maximum lifetime. Age of the longest surviving bees within a group
Duration of the queen: up to 5 years 
Drones live between May and July except in the drone colonies where we can find later.

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Bee heat per minute: 025 calories (RSA 90-05-208)
To maintain the hive to 35 ^o in lay, must be stored on average 15 kg of honey per year, ie:

January 0.53  1.97 July

0.98 in February  1.84 in August

March 1.47  1.23 September

1.75 in April  0.70 in October

May 2.25  0.30 in November

June 2.05  0.50 in December

Must be adapted to the local climate this table. A colony consumes 10 kg of honey per winter
Bee activity zone: between 7 ^o C and 37 ^o C

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Annual balance sheet of a beehive:

INPUT	OUTPUT
nectar, honeydew, propolis 240 kg  oxygen 30 kg  Water 10 kg  pollen 40 kg	40 kg carbon dioxide  water (sugar burning) 15 kg  water (concentration of honey) 150 kg  honey 40 kg with 20 kg of surplus  25 kg bees  wax 36 kg with 6 kg of surplus  alluvial 40 kg
Total 320 kg	Total 320 kg

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Beekeeping in the world
Beekeeping in China (RSA 93-08-304, 93-09-367) 
    China has 6,000,000 hives and produces 22% of world trade 
    Objective few years 20'000'000 hives produce 400 '000 tonnes of honey or 40% of world production
Beekeeping in Switzerland (RSA 93-04-113) 
    Switzerland is 18,000 to 300,000 beekeepers hives 
    2 professional beekeepers with hives 700-800 
(RSA 00-06-195) 
    In 15 years 35% of the colonies have disappeared (100 '000 colonies) 
(Expo 02) 
    Switzerland has 21,000 beekeepers to 200,000 hives 
    producing 60 miilion in direct revenues and indirect CHF 300 million 
Density of colonies per km ² (RSA 91-04-106)

Czechoslovakia  Switzerland  Germany  Netherlands

9  8  4  1.8

Honey production in the 91: 1,200,000 tons

FSU  China  USA  Switzerland

240,000 tonnes  200,000 tonnes  150,000 tonnes  between 2'000-5'000 tons

The average consumption per year Switzerland  Switzerland consumes per year

between 1.2-1.5 kg  10,500 tons

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The importance of honey in the first men

The man (Homo sapiens)  Rock painting of honey hunting  high Bees in skeps  Beekeeping on hive frames

Thousands of years 2000  8  5  0.15

Duration reduced to 1 day 24 hours  6 minutes  3.5 minutes  7 seconds

799, Charlemagne order: hive of woven 
straw, 1772, Jonah Gelieu: up to hive 
1844 the French Debeauvoys: the moveable-frame hive 
in 1851, the American Langstroth 
1857 German Mehring: wax foundation sheet
The legend of Aristeas:
Aristaeus, son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene is master of bees and honey 
During a trip to Thrace, he falls in love with Eurydice Orpheus' wife 
Eurydice tries to escape and walk on a snake fatally bites 
Orpheus and Eurydice campaigns to punish Aristeus, destroy his apiary 
Cyrene in whom fled Aristeus advise him to sacrifice four bulls and four heifers 
from their decomposing bodies emerge after a few days of bees 
Aristeus can thus replenish its apiary
Divine birth of Orion
Hyrieus, Viotia king (whose name means "swarm") and his partner the Pleiades Alcyone can not have children 
Hyrieus sacrificed in honor of the gods, a bull which he buried underground skin 
Zeus, Poseidon and Hermes, affected, access to his desire and makes him a son 
They spread their seed on the buried remains and there is born the Giant Orion
Samson (Old Testament Book of Judges Chapter 14)

Samson kills a lion with bare hands that had thrown him 
some time after he made ​​a detour and might see the carcass of the lion which was a hive and honey 
What gave Samson, the following riddle: From the eater came forth food, and the strong came forth sweetness