Questions with Guaranteed Pass
Solutions 2026-2027 Updated.
How are honey bees beneficial and productive insects to humans? - Answer - honey
- crop pollination
- other hive products (beeswax, pollen, propolis, bee venom)
- entertainment (beekeeping, movies, documentaries)
Where do the earliest records of beekeeping come from? When does it date back to? - Answer
Ancient Egypt; 4-5 thousand years ago
When did humans start hunting bee colonies to steal their honey? - Answer 9-10 thousand
years ago
What did traditional beehives look like and made of? - Answer elongated hives made of
pottery, wood, wicker, straw, cork
- upside-down wicker baskets very popular in most parts of Europe
When did the scientific basis of beekeeping practice become established? - Answer during the
16th, 17th, 18th centuries
Who introduced Apis mellifera, the western honey bee, into the Americas? When were they
introduced? - Answer European settlers in the 17th century
What did native Americans keep before the arrival of the honey bee - Answer local species of
stingless bees that produced 4-5 times less honey and wax compared to the western honey bee
What is the bee space? - Answer 9mm space between combs for honey bees to pass through
(passage area)
Who designed the mosts useful and important hive? When was it developed? - Answer
Lorenzo L. Langstroth in 1851 (USA)
who is considered the father of modern beekeeping? Why? - Answer Lorenzo L. Langstroth for
designing a beehive w/ movable frames w/ 9mm space inbtwn
,What types of beekeeping devices were invented during the 19th century? - Answer beeswax
foundation, the honey extractor, the queen excluder, the smoker, etc.
advances in queen rearing techniques
when was the foundation of modern beekeeping established? - Answer by the early part of
the 20th century
Apiculture in Europe - Answer ~20 million bee hives w/ an annual average honey yield of less
than 15 kg per colony
Apiculture in China - Answer World's largest producer and exporter of honey and royal jelly w/
over 6 million hives
- exports 80 million kg of honey a year
Apiculture in Africa - Answer ~14 million bee hives, most of them the traditional type (w/ fixed
combs) and honey and wax are harvested together by destroying the combs
Apiculture in Australia and the Pacific Islands - Answer ~1 million colonies of honey bees
many beekeepers practice migratory apiculture allowing for some of the highest honey yields
per hive in the world (>70 kg per colony)
Apiculture in the Americas - Answer >12 million colonies
- honey yields here are higher than those obtained in Europe and Asia
Mexico is the 4th world's honey producer w/ 2 million hives and average yield of 27 kg
Argentina: 1.5 million colonies, yielding 35 kg per hive
the average annual honey yield per hive in the USA is 20 kg, in Canada, 60 kg (one of the highest
in the world)
- Canada has >650,000 colonies
What order are honey bees? - Answer Hymenoptera (insects w/ 4 membranous wings)
,As all insects do, bees have 3 pairs of legs and a segmented body
what are the 3 types of individuals in a honey bee colony? - Answer queen (female), worker
(female), drone (male)
What are the 2 functions of the queen in the colony? - Answer 1. to lay eggs (she is the only
reproductive female)
2. to produce pheromones (chemical messages) to maintain colony cohesion, stimulate food
foraging and regulate colony reproduction
How do drones develop and what is their function? - Answer Develop from unfertilized eggs
through parthenogenesis (only carry 1/2 genetic material)
only function is to mate w/ virgin queens during spring and summer
what are worker bees? - Answer non-reproductive females that make up the vast majority of
the hive population; perform all duties except reproduction
usually perform activities according to their age, but the colony system is flexible based on
required needs
What insect did honey bees evolve from? - Answer a specoid wasp ancestor that preyed upon
other insects (carnivore) but switched to a vegetarian diet (pollen and nectar)
Where is the oldest fossil record of honey bees found in and how old is it? - Answer Northern
Europe, over 50 million years old
What is the origin of the genus Apis? - Answer Tropical origin (debate as to whether they
evolved in Africa or Southeast Asia)
How is Apis mellifera (the honey bee) classified? - Answer Kingdom: Animalia (all animals)
Phylum: Arthropoda (animals with segmented body and exoskeleton: lack backbones
Class: Insecta (composed of three body regions, with three pairs of legs, one pair of antennae
and one or two pairs of wings)
, Order: Hymenoptera (four-winged insects with constricted abdomen; many with social habits)
Superfamily: Apoidea (10-11 families comprising about 20,000 species of bees. Their bodies are
adapted to collect and transport pollen and nectar)
Family: Apidae (comprised of four subfamilies; includes honey bee species, bumble bees, orchid
bees and stingless bees)
Genus: Apis (the true honey bees: at least six species within this genus)
Species: Apis mellifera (the common western honey bee)
what are the different species of honey bees? - Answer Apis mellifera (the common western
honey bee kept in Europe, Africa, the Americas)
Apis florea (the dwarf honey bee native to Asia)
Apis dorsata (the giant honey bee from Asia)
Apis cerana (Asian honey bee closely related to Apis mellifera)
What are the 4 different life cycle stages of the honey bee? - Answer Egg, Larva, Pupa, Adult
What are the two subclasses of the class insecta? - Answer holometabola and hemimetabola
are honey bees holometabolous or hemimetabolous insects? - Answer Holometabolous
insects because they pass through complete metamorphosis (transformation).
brood - Answer the first 3 stages of development: egg, larva, pupa
The egg - Answer contains an embryo and nutrients for its development
contains cytoplasm, the nucleus, and the yolk (nutritive material)
egg development (think back to cell cleavage in insects) - Answer The egg nucleus divides
numerous times and the resulting nuclei migrate to the periphery of the egg, where they form a
layer of cells (the cleavage cells) that eventually becomes the blastoderm.