Cleaning the hive: this is how bees behave

As long as bees can have a healthy and long-lived life, their habitat must always be kept clean and uncluttered. The cleaning of the hive is therefore a necessary element to avoid the proliferation of dangerous bacteria or pathogens. Here's how bees organize themselves for care of their hive .

Defense of the hive from intruders

The organization in the world of bees is very rigid and leaves no room for intruders or dangers in the hive. It is precisely for this reason that the colonies guard the entrance to their "home" through the work of guardian bees . They have the task of warding off any predator approaching their home. Any type of intrusion from outside must be immediately blocked.

Removal of carcasses and mummification

Do you know how bees remove the bodies of predators from the hive? Here is a curiosity for you that you certainly did not know. When a large animal manages to cross the entrance to the hive, the bees immediately act to kill it. To do this, the defense tools that bees have at their disposal are two: the use of the sting or the overheating of the body. In fact, in addition to the use of the stinger, bees are able to kill intruders through suffocation. They gather together by massing on the predator's body and gradually begin to increase its body temperature until it suffocates.

But the predator problem doesn't end there. When an intruder is eliminated, a major difficulty remains: removing his carcass. In cases where large predators are involved, the carcass can be very difficult to transport outside, and, due to its weight, bees are often unable.

To avoid the dangers of decomposition, the swarm mummifies the body. It is a truly ingenious practice in which bees cover the corpse with propolis , which being rich in strong antibiotic properties , preserves the body by preventing the proliferation of bacteria and transforming it in a kind of mummy.

What is propolis

Propolis is a resinous substance that bees collect from the buds of some plants to cover the hives and protect them from external agents such as mold, fungi, bacteria. The bees therefore use it for its antibacterial and antifungal properties, but also for the repair of holes and cracks by eliminating any drafts of air in the hive.

As already specified, a particular use of propolis by bees is the mummification of intruders which, once killed, are too large to be taken outside. To prevent the decaying body from making the hive unhealthy, bees mummify it, just like in ancient Egypt.

The scavenger bees

In addition to the work of the guardian bees, that of the sweeper bees is also indispensable. When in the hive there are carcasses of small animals or bees themselves, the sweepers take care of removing them, keeping their habitat always clean and uncluttered. The access and proliferation of pathogens or bacteria would cause the onset of diseases that would irreversibly spread throughout the colony preventing its survival.

Antibacterial properties of honey

Did you know that honey is a strong natural antibiotic? This substance is also edible for humans and contains truly remarkable antibacterial properties. Honey is the food supply for entire bee families. A swarm can count as many as 60,000 individuals. To ensure that the food is preserved for a long time without the creation of mold or bacteria, the bees process it in a very particular way by eliminating every water molecule present in the substance. Honey is produced from the nectar of flowers and plants added to some enzymes of the bees themselves. Once the water is eliminated, the substance remains intact and edible for decades. Furthermore, in order not to reabsorb other moisture from the outside, the bees insert the honey into their cells and create a small veil of wax called operculum that will protect the honey from any external source.

We can define bees as very clean and well organized animals. Their work is constant and tiring, their functioning has given rise to an amazing collaborative organization. Bees play an active role in maintaining biodiversity and in restoring areas close to desertification and are truly indispensable for our planet.

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