ENVS 2210 Final Exam Questions with
Comprehensive Solutions 2026-2027
Edition.
beekeeping - Answer art of providing bees a hive and managing them according to season
Important to learn beekeeping practices over several seasons (experience) and from literature
applied bee biology
anticipation of colony development and needs
essence of beekeeping - Answer bee population grows rapidly after seasonal low point (winter
or wet period)
as population expands, there is a strong impulse for the population to naturally divide by
swarming
strong colonies will store a surplus of food reserves during nectar flow
after peak population, colonies decline in size, reaching a low point before next season begins
good beekeepers recognize major seasonal events and subsequently adjust their colony care to
account for seasonal variation
Father of Modern Beekeeping - Answer L. L. Langstroth
created a hive w/movable frames
discovered the bee space
Golden Age of Beekeeping - Answer last half of 1800s
many practical beekeeping devices invented ex. extractor, movable-frame hive, smoker, queen
excluder
bee space - Answer bees need a space of at least 9mm b/w combs in order to pass b/w them
honey bee - Answer insect of order Hymenoptera (insects w/4 membranous wings)
have 6 legs, segmented body
3 types: queen, worker (female), drone (male)
queen - Answer lays eggs (only reproductive female in colony)
produces pheromones that help maintain colony cohesion, stimulate food foraging and regulate
colony reproduction
,very specialized for these duties, can't survive alone or perform her own feeding and grooming
duties
usually live 2+ years when not stressed by parasites, diseases, and environmental events
drone - Answer male bees
bigger than workers, barrel-shaped
large eyes that meet at top of head
develop from unfertilized eggs therefore only carry 1/2 the genetic make-up of female bees
(haploid)
only function is to mate w/virgin queen during spring and summer
worker bees - Answer females w/undeveloped reproductive organs and constitute the
majority of the adult population in a bee hive
adapted to perform most of the tasks in a colony
monitor drone #s, expel them from hive as weather cools in autumn
evolutionary origin of bees - Answer believed to have evolved from a carnivorous sphecoid
wasp ancestor, but switched to a vegetarian (pollen and nectar) diet
oldest fossil records are in northern Europe, over 50 million years old
Apis genus is thought to be from Africa or South Asia
Classification - Answer Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Superfamily: Apoidea
Family: Apidae
Genus: Apis
Species: Apis mellifera
species of honey bees - Answer Apis mellifera (most common)
Apis florea (dwarf native of Asia)
Apis dorsata (giant bee from Asia)
Apis cerana (Asian bee closely related to Apis mellifera)
brood - Answer first 3 stages of bee life cycle
,egg, larva, pupa
stages of bee life cycle - Answer egg - 3 days for all types
larva - 5.5 days for queen, 6 for worker, 7 for drone
pupa - 7.5 days for queen, 12 for worker, 14 for drone
adult
bee bread - Answer mix of pollen and nectar fed to workers and drones starting 3 days after
they hatch
ecdysone - Answer hormone that regulates moulting during metamorphosis
produced by prothoracic gland after being stimulated by corpus cardiac
juvenile hormone - Answer influences cell division and body differentiation during
metamorphosis
secreted by corpus allata (a brain gland)
internal stimuli - Answer inside the hive
pheromone odours (produced by queen, workers, or larvae)
visual cues (seeing a returning forager perform a dance)
changes in temp in the brood nest
empty cells
external stimuli - Answer outside the hive
sight and smeel of flowers (associated w/food)
climatic conditions (wind, temp, solar radiation)
can be affected by bee's previous experiences/what they've learned ex. foragers learn to
associate the flower colour and odour w/a partic nectar reward
types of cells - Answer worker cells - 0.5cm diameter, used to rear workers and store nectar
and pollen
drone cells - larger than worker cells, used to rear drones and for food stores
queen cells - peanut-shaped cells that hang from comb edges, used by bees to rear queens
Basic experimental approach to study the dance language - Answer training bees from an
observation hive to visit artificial feeding stations and observing their dances (and their
recruiting ability) after they return to the hive
, round dance - Answer performed by Carniolan bee for distances up to 80m
used by Apis cerana for distances up to 3m away, used by Apis dorsata up to 4/5m
bee runs around in narrow circles on comb, pausing occasionally to give hive mates a taste
sample of the food, which communicates additional info
lasts <1 min
liveliness of dance is influenced by source richness, more vigorous w/^ [sugar]
nearby bees follow dancer and touch her w/their antennae to perceive odours (communicate
floral source of food) and sometimes receive small samples of nectar from her
then leave hive in search of food, flying in circles around hive until they find source
*Conveys:* distance (<80m), source (smell, taste), quality (sugar [ ]), profitability of source
(liveliness of dance)
wagtail dance - Answer performed by Carniolan bees if distance is greater than 80m away, can
be performed by Italian and Caucasian races at 40+m
bee runs in narrow semicircle to right or left, turns sharply and move in straight line (oriented to
gravity that encodes direction to fly) while wagging her abdomen, then makes another
semicircle
also produces low-frequency sounds w/wings (time of sound/waggling thought to communicate
distance info)
follower bees touch dancer to acquire scents and pick up vibrations using Johnston's organ in
pedicel of antennae
*Conveys:* distance (speed and time to complete a circuit of dance, more circuits = shorter
distance), source (smell and taste), quality/profitability, quantity (number of dancing bees,
frequency of dances), direction (straight-run portion of dance, up = towards sun, down = away
from sun, if right or left, will also run right or left at an angle equivalent to that created by line
from hive to position of sun and line from hive to food)
use compass position of sun as reference for direction
number of foragers dancing increases w/profitable sources or decreases if they become scarce,
which affects the number of recruited bees
sickle dance - Answer performed by Italian bees but not Carniolan bees b/w 10 and 30m from
hive
appears in shape of a figure 8/crescent shape
direction is conveyed as an imaginary line through the middle of the crescent to just
after 40m, the two lobes gradually close together to resemble wagtail dance
breaking dance - Answer bees run excitedly through hive and clustered swarm
signal to leave hive to fly to bivouac site or leave from swarm cluster to follow scout bees to
new home site
Comprehensive Solutions 2026-2027
Edition.
beekeeping - Answer art of providing bees a hive and managing them according to season
Important to learn beekeeping practices over several seasons (experience) and from literature
applied bee biology
anticipation of colony development and needs
essence of beekeeping - Answer bee population grows rapidly after seasonal low point (winter
or wet period)
as population expands, there is a strong impulse for the population to naturally divide by
swarming
strong colonies will store a surplus of food reserves during nectar flow
after peak population, colonies decline in size, reaching a low point before next season begins
good beekeepers recognize major seasonal events and subsequently adjust their colony care to
account for seasonal variation
Father of Modern Beekeeping - Answer L. L. Langstroth
created a hive w/movable frames
discovered the bee space
Golden Age of Beekeeping - Answer last half of 1800s
many practical beekeeping devices invented ex. extractor, movable-frame hive, smoker, queen
excluder
bee space - Answer bees need a space of at least 9mm b/w combs in order to pass b/w them
honey bee - Answer insect of order Hymenoptera (insects w/4 membranous wings)
have 6 legs, segmented body
3 types: queen, worker (female), drone (male)
queen - Answer lays eggs (only reproductive female in colony)
produces pheromones that help maintain colony cohesion, stimulate food foraging and regulate
colony reproduction
,very specialized for these duties, can't survive alone or perform her own feeding and grooming
duties
usually live 2+ years when not stressed by parasites, diseases, and environmental events
drone - Answer male bees
bigger than workers, barrel-shaped
large eyes that meet at top of head
develop from unfertilized eggs therefore only carry 1/2 the genetic make-up of female bees
(haploid)
only function is to mate w/virgin queen during spring and summer
worker bees - Answer females w/undeveloped reproductive organs and constitute the
majority of the adult population in a bee hive
adapted to perform most of the tasks in a colony
monitor drone #s, expel them from hive as weather cools in autumn
evolutionary origin of bees - Answer believed to have evolved from a carnivorous sphecoid
wasp ancestor, but switched to a vegetarian (pollen and nectar) diet
oldest fossil records are in northern Europe, over 50 million years old
Apis genus is thought to be from Africa or South Asia
Classification - Answer Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Superfamily: Apoidea
Family: Apidae
Genus: Apis
Species: Apis mellifera
species of honey bees - Answer Apis mellifera (most common)
Apis florea (dwarf native of Asia)
Apis dorsata (giant bee from Asia)
Apis cerana (Asian bee closely related to Apis mellifera)
brood - Answer first 3 stages of bee life cycle
,egg, larva, pupa
stages of bee life cycle - Answer egg - 3 days for all types
larva - 5.5 days for queen, 6 for worker, 7 for drone
pupa - 7.5 days for queen, 12 for worker, 14 for drone
adult
bee bread - Answer mix of pollen and nectar fed to workers and drones starting 3 days after
they hatch
ecdysone - Answer hormone that regulates moulting during metamorphosis
produced by prothoracic gland after being stimulated by corpus cardiac
juvenile hormone - Answer influences cell division and body differentiation during
metamorphosis
secreted by corpus allata (a brain gland)
internal stimuli - Answer inside the hive
pheromone odours (produced by queen, workers, or larvae)
visual cues (seeing a returning forager perform a dance)
changes in temp in the brood nest
empty cells
external stimuli - Answer outside the hive
sight and smeel of flowers (associated w/food)
climatic conditions (wind, temp, solar radiation)
can be affected by bee's previous experiences/what they've learned ex. foragers learn to
associate the flower colour and odour w/a partic nectar reward
types of cells - Answer worker cells - 0.5cm diameter, used to rear workers and store nectar
and pollen
drone cells - larger than worker cells, used to rear drones and for food stores
queen cells - peanut-shaped cells that hang from comb edges, used by bees to rear queens
Basic experimental approach to study the dance language - Answer training bees from an
observation hive to visit artificial feeding stations and observing their dances (and their
recruiting ability) after they return to the hive
, round dance - Answer performed by Carniolan bee for distances up to 80m
used by Apis cerana for distances up to 3m away, used by Apis dorsata up to 4/5m
bee runs around in narrow circles on comb, pausing occasionally to give hive mates a taste
sample of the food, which communicates additional info
lasts <1 min
liveliness of dance is influenced by source richness, more vigorous w/^ [sugar]
nearby bees follow dancer and touch her w/their antennae to perceive odours (communicate
floral source of food) and sometimes receive small samples of nectar from her
then leave hive in search of food, flying in circles around hive until they find source
*Conveys:* distance (<80m), source (smell, taste), quality (sugar [ ]), profitability of source
(liveliness of dance)
wagtail dance - Answer performed by Carniolan bees if distance is greater than 80m away, can
be performed by Italian and Caucasian races at 40+m
bee runs in narrow semicircle to right or left, turns sharply and move in straight line (oriented to
gravity that encodes direction to fly) while wagging her abdomen, then makes another
semicircle
also produces low-frequency sounds w/wings (time of sound/waggling thought to communicate
distance info)
follower bees touch dancer to acquire scents and pick up vibrations using Johnston's organ in
pedicel of antennae
*Conveys:* distance (speed and time to complete a circuit of dance, more circuits = shorter
distance), source (smell and taste), quality/profitability, quantity (number of dancing bees,
frequency of dances), direction (straight-run portion of dance, up = towards sun, down = away
from sun, if right or left, will also run right or left at an angle equivalent to that created by line
from hive to position of sun and line from hive to food)
use compass position of sun as reference for direction
number of foragers dancing increases w/profitable sources or decreases if they become scarce,
which affects the number of recruited bees
sickle dance - Answer performed by Italian bees but not Carniolan bees b/w 10 and 30m from
hive
appears in shape of a figure 8/crescent shape
direction is conveyed as an imaginary line through the middle of the crescent to just
after 40m, the two lobes gradually close together to resemble wagtail dance
breaking dance - Answer bees run excitedly through hive and clustered swarm
signal to leave hive to fly to bivouac site or leave from swarm cluster to follow scout bees to
new home site
