File: <pollinexam2.htm> <Index to Pollination> Site Description <Navigate to Home>

EXAMINATION & EXERCISES #2

FOR INSECT POLLINATION

(Contact)

For answers please also refer to the following references:

Dafni, Amots; Kevan, Peter G.; and Husband, Brian C. 2005. Practical Pollination Biology. Enviroquest, Ltd.

Fægri, K. and L. van der Pijl. 1979. The Principles of Pollination Ecology. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Glover, Beverly J. 2007. Understanding Flowers and Flowering: anIntegrated Approach, Oxford University Press, pp. 127.

Richards, A. J. (ed.). 1978. The Pollination of Flowers by Insects. Academic Press, New York. 214 p.

HONEYBEE ACTIVITIES

1. Give a short account of the technique employed by honeybees in visiting flowers to gather nectar.

2. Compare the bee with other animals as to man's ability to domesticate them. How can we profit from her

labors?

3. What can you say of temperature and its relation to the activities of the honey bee? Name some of the

activities that are controlled by temperature?

4. What processes are involved in converting nectar into honey preparatory to its being stored?

5. Explain the production of wax and comb building.

6. Briefly discuss the various duties of the younger bees in a colony.

7. Comment on the working habits of Field Bees, with special emphasis on fidelity to occupation and fidelity

to plant species. Of what significance is this bee trait to seed fields and orchards?

8. Upon what factors does the output of a hive of bees depend? About how many pounds of honey sho11ld an

extra powerful colony produce when all conditions are favorable? What would average production be?

9. What importance is attached to the use of water by the bees? How is it obtained and where stored?

10. Briefly treat the subject of pollen and its collection. Is anything added to pollen at, the time is i9 collected or

stored in the hive?

11. What is the primary source of protein in the food of the larval bee?  Of carbohydrate? What is porpolis?

12. Define colony morale. On what factors does it depend? How can the beekeeper make profitable use of this

trait in bees?

13. What is the advantage of using full sheets of comb foundation over starter or empty frames? What objection

would you have to drone comb? Under what conditions are excess drone cells built? How can this

condition be corrected or prevented?

14. Briefly summarize the topic: "Division of Labor".

15. Discuss the secretion of beeswax. Which is most advantageous, to hive a swarm on comb foundation or on

fully drawn combs, or both? Why?

16. Do bees have any means of communication with each other? Give evidence.

17. Compare the beehive with a factory: similarity and dissimilarity.  Name the main raw materials required.

Indicate the use of each.

18. Name some of the factors involved in the ripening process of honey. What part does ventilation play?

19. Comment briefly on the subject of natural comb. Upon what factor does the number of combs, their size,

and their shape depend?

20. Describe the conduct of an incoming nectar gatherer. How does she dispose of her load?

21. Briefly mention of some important fact, favorable or unfavorable, of each of the following eras: the Comb

Honey Era, and the Second Extracted Honey Era.

22. Comment on The Box-Hive Era in this country. When did it end? What three fundamental inventions took

place during this period? What is a skep?

23. Describe briefly the first steps in the evolution of the modern beehive.

24. Describe the hive that is most universally used today. What hive ranks second? Describe it.

25. Give the date of the first extracted honey era and state what took place.

26. Name and briefly describe ten of the chief articles of apiary equipment.

27. What are some of the first considerations in keeping bees?