6.3 ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF BREEDING 146 Bee venom has been used for treating arthritis, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, cancer, epilepsy, depression, and more. Why do bees consume nectar and pollen? Bees potentially contribute towards 15 of the 17 SDGs and a minimum of 30 SDG targets. ONLINE RESOURCES The waggle dance Bees and Fibonacci sequence BEES Bees are social and hardworking insects which are part of the biodiversity on which we all depend for our survival. They also produce high-quality products honey, pollen, royal jelly, beeswax, propolis, and venom all collected and used by people for various nutritional and medicinal purposes . Origin and behaviour Native to Africa or Asia, honeybees were imported to other countries: some are wild species (Apis florea), others (Apis mellifera) have been domesticated for hundreds of years. Domesticated bees are social insects, as they form and live in large, well-organised groups and, compared to wild bees, are easily managed and manipulated. Bees visit flowers for their food, nectar and pollen , rich in sugar and high nutritive values, respectively. The greatest pollinators When bees pick up the pollen of flowers and spread it, they allow plants, including many food crops, to reproduce. Bee-pollinated crops contribute to approximately one-third of the total human dietary supply , due to bees wide availability and effectiveness in pollinating a great variety of crops, including fruits, vegetables, oilseeds, and legumes. The bee colony Honeybee colonies live in hives and consist of three kinds of adult bees. Queen: it runs the whole hive, laying up to 2,500 eggs a day in the summer months, and producing chemicals to guide the behaviour of the other bees. The queen can live up to five years; then, workers will create a new queen by selecting a young larva and feeding it royal jelly , which enables the larva to develop into a fertile queen. Workers: these are all the females that forage for food, build and protect the hive. Returning to their hive, workers perform the waggle dance , which is a figure-eight dance to communicate the direction, distance, and quality of food resources. The average worker bee lives for just five to six weeks and produces around a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey. Drones: these are the male bees, and their purpose is to mate with the queen. Several hundreds live in each hive in spring and summer. But in winter, when the hive goes into survival mode, the drones are kicked out. Colony collapse disorder Over the past 15 years, colonies of bees have been dying or disappearing, but the reason remains unknown. Researchers suppose possible causes are pesticide poisoning, changes to the habitat where bees forage, lack of nesting areas, poor nutrition, hard winters, electromagnetic interferences, pests, viruses and parasites. drone: fuco/ape maschio to forage for food: andare alla ricerca di cibo hive: alveare 302 LIVESTOCK to kick out: mandar via to mate: accoppiarsi royal jelly: pappa reale venom: veleno to waggle: scodinzolare