Bees communicate with their fellow members via so-called bee dances to show them new sources of food. The reason for this is that it would be a waste of energy if every bee went looking for food on its own without any guidance. For this reason, only individual so-called "track bees" are sent out.
There are two bee dances: the round dance and the wiggle dance.
During the round dance the found food source is in the vicinity (distance up to 100 m/328 feet). The bee "dances" small circles with a change of direction. As a result, the other worker bees know how abundant the food source is (depending on the intensity of the dance) and how far away it is from the hive.
In the wiggle dance, on the other hand, the food source is usually 0.1 km (0.62 miles) to 3 km (1.86 miles) away. The track-bee "dances" an 8, with the middle part "wiggling", i. e. she moves her rear part alternately to the left and right. In addition, the corresponding angle of the "wiggling part" to the sun indicates the direction in which the food is located. The other bees thus not only recognize the distance (the slower the dance, the further away) and the fertility (intensity of the "tail part"), but also (in contrast to the round dance) the direction of the food source.
In both dances, during dance breaks, food samples are also given from the track bees to their fellow members so that they know what kind of food they are talking about.

With a bit of luck you might be able to watch our bees dancing over the live stream!

Katja Herold

Generally speaking, bees have a yearly cycle that starts in summer with the young colony, but is dependent on the environment and can be postponed. For this reason, a hive requires constant attention from the beekeeper, so that he can carry out his work at the right time.
The cycle consists of 4 segments: The descending development, winter rest, the ascending development and summer (in this order). The descending development consists of preparations for the winter. Fat and protein cushions are formed and the drones are driven out (see multiplication of bees).
During the winter rest, which lasts from October to February, the bees are kept warm in the bee/winter cluster. At the end of hibernation the bees swarm out to the cleansing flights.
In the ascending development, winter bees are replaced by summer bees at the beginning of the transition from hibernation to ascending development. In spring the drones will be bred and the hive will grow stronger.
The summer is the highlight of the whole cycle and hive development and the queen cells are prepared. However, the workers are gradually becoming unemployed as there are too many of them, but when the hive is ready to divide itself, the old queen moves out with part of the workers as a swarm and looks for a new habitation.

Lukas Thiersch

Worker bees are female honeybees performing the majority of the tasks in the hive. They develop from fertilized eggs laid by the queen into special worker brood cells. The larva hatched from the egg spends a total of 21 days in the cell. After emerging from the cell, she works as a nurse bee. Her main task is to care for the brood. From day 11 she is called builder bee, as she attends to the building of new brood combs, and from day 19 to 21 she assumes the role of a guard bee. In this phase she guards the entrance to the hive and protects the colony from enemies or intruders. Finally, she works as a forager bee collecting nectar, pollen, water and tree resins.

Sarah Barth

Bees can be divided into two groups. Firstly, there are summer bees. As they have to work a lot and raise the brood, they spend a lot of energy and live only three to six weeks. Then there are winter bees. Their brood starts in July and they emerge from the cell from August to October. Winter bees do not have to raise brood, their main job is to build up fat and protein reserves in order to survive five to six months of cold season. Winter bees have a life span of up to nine months.

Bees are among the few insects that winter in community. When temperatures drop below 12 °C, bees begin to gather, and below 6 °C they cling tightly together and form a ball-shaped winter cluster. They do this to maintain warmth, as a small surface prevents heat loss.

On the outside of the cluster bees form an insulating layer by sitting close to each other. The bees below them produce heat by moving their flight muscles (without moving their wings) and pass it on to the others. Bees sitting on food combs are responsible for food distribution. This transfer of nourishment is especially important for the heat-generating bees as they need huge amounts of energy. Food consumption therefore depends on temperature. The colder it is, the more heat the bees have to produce and the more food is needed.

Inside the winter cluster, temperature is maintained at a constant 25 °C, while temperature at the outer shell is only between 10 °C and 12 °C. Bees therefore regularly exchange places, so that bees from the outside can warm up inside. As the warmest place is in the center, this is where the queen is. Bees can produce enough heat to survive temperatures as low as -50 °C.

As soon as temperatures rise above 6 °C for longer periods of time, the winter cluster dissolves and the bees get active. They prepare the cells for the brood and embark on their first outings. When temperatures exceed 12 °C, bees take cleansing flights to void their feces, roam the neighborhood and start collecting food for the growing colony.

Eva-Maria Hanold

Bees use the position of the sun, but also the unique smell of the hive to find their way. Forager bees can also remember landmarks in the area surrounding their hive. To spread the smell in the area, bees fan, which means they raise their abdomens and move their wings rapidly in front of the hive entrance, thus exposing the Nasanov gland and releasing pheromones. As to their sense of taste, it should be noted that they discern only strong, non-synthetic sugar solutions as a source of food. Bees see only biologically relevant colors in the wavelength spectrum from 300 μm to 650 μm. They specialize on a single flower species for a whole season. While collecting nectar, pollen from the flowers sticks to the bees’ bodies and they pollinate other plants.

Julian Wunderlich

To protect themselves from the elements, bees build or take over a brood cavity, in which the colony stores honey and breeds. For building a brood cavity yourself, you should bear in mind certain features.

Bees prefer smaller entrance holes since they are easier to defend against enemies (wasps). For better heat exchange and maintenance, this hole should be at the bottom of the brood cavity. A southward-facing position offers the advantage of exposure to sunlight.

Bees do not have a preferred brood nest shape, but you cannot go wrong with a cylindrical/rectangular shape. The brood cavity should be small enough for the bees to be able to defend the hive, and it should be big enough to provide space for the combs (a volume of 50 liters is recommended).

Bees have their own system to keep the hive warm. Thermoregulation of the hive is teamwork: Bees produce heat by twitching muscles in the chest area (thorax). Since many bees are involved, this process has to be well coordinated (social homoiothermy). The summer colony, for example, has to produce more heat to keep the brood warm.

For heating purposes bees cluster more or less closely together, thus regulating the amount of heat released.

Carlos Wierer

The queen bee:
Each colony has a queen whose average life span is 3 years. Since she cannot feed herself, she is fed by worker bees. In summer a freshly hatched queen mates with 8 to 12 drones at so-called drone congregation areas in order to collect enough sperm for subsequent oviposition. The queen‘s main task is to produce offspring for the colony.
With her long abdomen the queen is significantly bigger than the worker bees.

Drone:
The only job of male bees (drones) is to mate with the queen at the drone congregation areas. Drones develop from unfertilized eggs. After about 10 days they are sexually mature and ready for mating. Like the queen bee, drones are fed by workers.
If a drone succeeds in mating with a queen during nuptial flights, he gives her sperm and dies. Unsuccessful drones are driven out of the colony by worker bees at the end of summer in what is known as the “slaughter of the drones”.
Drones have longer antennae and bigger legs than female bees. Their compound eyes are strikingly big.

Nicolas Lucius

After the queen has laid the egg in an empty comb cell, the development cycle of a bee begins. After three days the egg hatches into a larva that immediately receives a nutritious diet provided by worker bees. In time, the coiled larva stretches and begins to develop spinning glands and spin a cocoon around itself. The duration of the pupa stage depends on the type of bee: Workers need a total of 21 days from the laying of an egg to emerging from the cell, drones 24 day and queens only 16 days. After emerging from the cell, a worker bee assumes different responsibilities depending on her age. Her career can be divided into 4 phases: nurse bee (days 1 to 10), builder bee (days 11 to 18), guard bee (days 19 to 21) and, from then until death, forager bee (approx. days 22 to 30).

Jaqueline Borschberg

Bees build their combs in a highly coordinated manner and in parallel from top to bottom. They do not build as many combs as space would allow, but only as many as required (either for storing food or for housing the brood). The wax needed for the combs is produced by the bees themselves in special glands on the underside of their abdomen and appears in the form of wax flakes (approx. 0.8 mg). More than 100 000 wax flakes are needed to build a single comb (approx. 80 g)! Bees have developed a very sophisticated and highly efficient method of building combs, always molding hexagons with 120 degree angles. To do this, bees create arrays of cylinders and heat them up. The heat causes the wax to flow and due to mechanical tension the walls even out and a hexagonal form emerges. A hexagonal comb has a very large volume, and an infinite number of cells can be mounted edge to edge without leaving any gaps, which means that the bees need less wax for construction. The combs are then ready, as mentioned above, either for storing food or for housing the brood.

Florian Voit

Like all insects honeybees have an exoskeleton made of chitin and their bodies are segmented into three basic sections: head, thorax and abdomen. The abdomen is particularly flexible, which allows the bee to use its poison stinger for defense and retain feces during winter.
The hind legs of worker bees are specially designed for collecting pollen. A very hairy notch on the front legs is used for cleaning the antennae. Honeybees have two compound eyes and three simple eyes (ocelli). Respiratory openings called spiracles are located on the thorax and abdomen. They ensure the supply of oxygen to the internal organs.

With two pairs of wings bees are able to perform agile flight maneuvers. When flying, forewings and hind wings interlock firmly in a zipper-like fashion. A bee can reach a speed of close to 20 miles per hour. The rapid wing beat of up to 150 beats per second is supported by strong muscles in the thorax. The wings are not only used for flying, but also for ventilating the hive. In addition, bees can use their wings to produce sounds, the function of which has yet to be discovered. The hair covering the bee body serves to regulate body temperature and perceive air movements.

Lukas Rothenberger

Bees live on a purely vegetarian diet. They need nectar, a sweet liquid produced by flowering plants, and pollen.
A bee colony consumes about 120 kg of nectar and 20 kg of pollen per year. Pollen is a source of protein. Nectar contains carbohydrates and fats and is needed for energy supply.
Nectar is stored in combs in the form of honey, which is composed of 75 percent sugars, such as sucrose, fructose and glucose. The remaining 25 percent are water, proteins, pollen, mineral substances, vitamins and other ingredients.

Sebastian Ritter