Models of Describing Sustainability of Ecology of Bees - Essay Example

? The Ecology of Bees By Techniques and Models of Describing Sustainability of Ecology of Bees Introduction In the recent years, colonies of bees are prone to collapse since the ecology of bees is bees are under a warring threat for survival. Due to the warring collapse of the colony of the bees, some techniques such as the economics of the environment and some models of sustainability have to be used in an attempt to protect and sustain the ecology of bees. In consideration of this, Malthusian Scarcity point of view describes clearly, following the environmental economies, the techniques used in bid to protect and sustain the ecology of bees. It was the notion of many individuals in the world in the early years, that in order to increase the production of honey from bees one just needed to create a conducive environment for many more beehives. In the current days, the process of bee keeping has become very complicated, a process, which entails several, processes (Perman, 2012). For better results of beekeeping, the practitioners should combine both the scientific and the technological and practical skills to their knowledge of beekeeping. Eventually, the word apiculture describes the scientific process of beekeeping as a very comprehensive and technological enterprise. Human beings made their first hives, which varied in sizes and their main intention was to increase the production of honey. After they had trapped enough bees that made enough honey in the hives, such hives collected five gallons of honey. The colonies of bees in the hives were first killed before the harvesting of honey and later removed all the honeycombs from the hives. This way of collection of honey shows that the people’s main interest was honey and they did not think of the consequences they pose to the colonies of bees (Tietenberg, & Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2004). This method is unreliable since it endangers the survival of bees. Later on, in the nineteenth century, the beekeepers experimented making the beehives using wood. The beehives were made into wooden boxes and inside the boxes were plated which divided the boxes for easy addition and removal of boxes and in order to control the activities of the bees. This method proved to work because people could do the harvesting of honey without killing the colonies of bees thus promoting the process of beekeeping (Pearce, J, & R, 2011). There are different types of honeybees. They include the European Honey Bees and the African Honey Bees among others. The scientists believe that the African Honey Bees will dominate and especially when the regular honeybees interbreed with the Africanized honey bees, the Africanized honeybees dominate. This shows that there is a likelihood of the Africanized honeybees to dominate and migrate to Arizona and other parts of the world. Therefore, the individuals who want to indulge into beekeeping should permanently change their view on the Africanized honeybee. They should also learn the habits of bees so that they can be able to take precautions and to be able to support their efforts of beekeeping. Bees are very important insects that human beings greatly depend on them. In order for an individual to be able to understand the threat posed by the bees, they should start by understanding the behaviour of the honeybees. These insects are very essential to human beings and thus their destruction will affect several activities of a human being. The honey bees aid in pollination of many crops that human beings farm and consume as food thus it is a very essential agricultural component. In any case, as long as the bee colony does not negatively affect animals and human beings, the bee colonies should prosper and grow wide (Pearce & Golen, 1984). The European honeybees differ greatly from Africanized honeybees. They may appear to look similar but they have very different behaviours. The Africanized honeybees have a tendency of swarming more frequently as compared to the European honeybees. The Africanized honeybees swarm after every six weeks and can produce several separate swarms each time they swarm. On the other hand, the European honeybees take as long as 12 months before swarming. This is very important because the rate of honey production is high when it comes to Africanized honey bees and also Africanized honey bees tend to be very defensive thus offer very strict protection to their hives. Another behaviour that makes the two types of honey bees different is that the Africanized honeybees are not selected for their homes. They can occupy any abandoned structure, holes, metal boxes and other structures and they take a very small space as compared to the European honeybees. After an individual knows all the behaviours of bees, they will be able to handle bees and thus improving their efforts for beekeeping. Individuals who would want to participate in bee keeping should therefore venture in understanding the behaviour of the bees, the precautions they should take while handling honeybees in order to improve their efforts in beekeeping (Hofstadter, 2007). There are also several models of approaches, which tend to explain the sustainability of bee ecology. There are practical’s on the models of population dynamics which tend to explain the manner on which population can be increased and decreased. The main reason for sustainability of honeybees is the economic importance that they provide to the industry of agriculture. This has led to the interest of scientists to undertake more research that is scientific. The researchers came up with information concerning the honeybees whereby they stated that honey bees are creatures, which are very social and have very complicated behaviours at the same time. In addition, honeybees have population dynamics. What makes the honeybee more economically important is that in spite production of honey, they also act as major pollinators unlike other insects who, besides pollinating the grains, they also go for nectar. In the United States, bees and honey play a major role in the agricultural industry although the bees are not natives of North America (Folmer & Tietenberg, 2007). There are several different types of honeybees and the most common species found in the United States is the Apis Mellifera Liguistica and the Apis Mellifera Carnica, the Italian and the Carniola bees respectively. The scientists have undertaken research concerning the ecology of Apis millefetra and they came up with the fact that Apis millefera is generally the social structure of the honeybees and the population dynamics of the honeybees. During the research, scientists have discovered that the honeybees have a very organized social structure begging with the queen at the top of the hierarchy and the drones and the female workers occupying the below part of the hierarchy. The queen mates with the drones so that it fulfils its core functions in the colony whereby she populates (Myers, 2000). When the queen is taken out during the early summer period, where she meets and mates with drones. The queen collects as much sperms as possible to sustain her role of populating the colony for her entire life. In cases where the queen becomes inefficient, the rest of the members of the colony may attach her and soon she becomes replaced by another queen. The workers take the second place in the hierarchy in the colony. The workers are responsible for ensuring that the queen gets special food, she does not lack anything, and they take care of the queen. Finally in the hierarchy in the colony, are the male drones. The male drones have no other function apart from mating with queens of other colonies. The honeybees play a very important role in the productivity of agricultural industry. This thus calls for unity among the beekeepers, scientists, and population dynamics in order to improve the productivity of honeybees thus increasing the productivity of the agricultural industries (Hussen, 2004). An example of a model describes the population sustainability is the coin models of Exponential Decay and Growth. In this model, two groups of coins each group containing 100 to 200 pennies creates a generation. Flipping and discarding coins the heads of the coins gives the number of generations. The process repeats itself for all the coins. Thomas Malthus recognized this model in the beginning of the nineteenth century and his main concerns was the ability of the society to increase the production of food perpendicularly with the growth of the needs of the growing population. There are other factors to consider in dealing with honeybees. Such factors include the temperature and other weather conditions (Douglas, 1994). There are other model approaches to sustainability of the population dynamics of the honeybee. These include the exponential growth and the logistics growth exponential approach to the sustainability of the population dynamics. The logistic growth states that the population changes that occurs between census which are consecutive to the total population currently and the differences of the capacity of population and the total of the population currently. On the other hand, the exponential growth states that the change of population in the census which are consecutive is proportional to the total population of the current census (Myers,2000) . Following the life of the beehive, the family of the matriarch is headed by the queen, which has a lifespan of three years. During the lifespan of the queen, the queen may lay eggs continually and thus creating an addition of twenty five thousand bees. The queen mates only once throughout her life and the scientists estimate that the queens acquire a minimum of five million sperms from the drones during the nuptial period. The queen makes the sperms fertile and reproduces at the rate that dictated by the workers. On the other hand, the workers make the large majority of the population of the honeybees. The majority are the male bees who are in most cases not fully developed. The female workers take care of the queen bringing for her special food and taking care her grooming as well. The female workers are the ones performing all the tasks that the hive is required for its growth. The female workers have a very short lifespan only 30 days during which they undergo several stages of development. The various stages of development give them their roles in the hive and their place in their position in the hierarchy. The worker bees are classified in most cases as housekeepers since their roles mostly include housekeeping or rather taking care of the hive (Hofstadter, 2007). The main cause of death of the worker bees is the burnout. This is whereby the wings of the bee weaken because of the frequent flying that they always do when they collect nectar, pollen and other food for the queen. There distances the worker bees fly have a limit of eight hundred kilometers and when the limit is surpassed, the worker bee has no other choice than to die. The colony of honeybees have practice division of labour as well, the labour is divided according to the age of the bee. At the initial stage, the worker bee starts as a housekeeper, then proceeds to be the storekeeper who is responsible for all the food collected and takes care of the store. The drones have a lifespan of less than twenty-five days. The drones begin making mating trips eight days after their hatching and when they reach twelve days, the drones begin making five mating trips in each day. The growth of the colony depends on the reproductive rate of the queen. The queen dictates the rate at which the colony grows. Therefore, people should provide good environments for the brooding of the colonies in order to encourage the productivity of the honeybees (Perman, 2012). Conclusion According to the research that I have done above, more research should take place concerning the honeybees. More products from bees benefit human beings greatly and thus more research should take place on how to improve the productivity of the honeybees. Largely, the honeybees affect the lives of human beings although indirectly because they aid in the pollination of plants. This promotes the economy because of the agricultural promotion and on the other hand, pollinates the crops that people depend on. On my stand, more research should take root to discover more ways of improving the ecology and the colonies of honeybees. References Douglas, M. R. (1994). How to make a habit of succeeding. Gretna: Pelican Pub. Co. Folmer, H., & Tietenberg, T. H. (2007). The international yearbook of environmental and resource economics 2006/2007: A survey of current issues. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Hofstadter, D. R. (2007). I am a strange loop. New York: Basic Books. Hussen, A. M. (2004). Principles of environmental economics. London [u.a.: Routledge. Myers, W. S. (2000). Prominent families of New Jersey. Baltimore: Clearfield. Pearce, C. G., Figgins, R., & Golen, S. (1984). 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