WATER AND DEVELOPMENT OF BEE FAMILIES IN SPRING.

We all know well that there would be no life on Earth if it were not water. Water is an indispensable attribute of Life on Earth. Its absence or lack means death for all living beings, and it does not matter whether it is an insect or a human. All living beings regularly replenish its reserves in the body, as water partially leaves with waste products through the excretory system, and pores when the body cools. Therefore, replenishment of water losses or the process of drinking is an indispensable attribute of every living organism. Why is water so important? Water performs the following physiological functions in the body:

• It is the structural basis of the optimal physiologically active volume of the cell and the internal environment of the body;

• It determines the structural ordering of biomolecules;

• It provides substrate specificity of enzyme action;

• It acts as a substrate in a number of enzymatic reactions;

• It forms a directed flow of substances inside the cell;

• It is a transport medium in the exchange of substances between cells, between the external environment and the internal environment, between the internal environment and cells;

• It participates in thermoregulation processes;

• It plays the role of a hemodynamic factor in the work of the circulatory system.

Entering the body from the outside, mainly through the gastrointestinal tract, water molecules are in constant motion. Part of the water is contained in the intracellular space, and part is outside the cells. Water is contained in muscle tissue, lymph, blood, and part of it is used by the glands.

                           

In normal life, bees get their water from the nectar they collect from flowers. It is the plants that provide the bees with the necessary amount of water to replenish the losses of the body. But not only this is important! The most important element of our life is so-called water-salt balance in the body. It is the salts dissolved in water that allow the muscles to work and transmit nerve impulses to them. Salts are also required for the normal functioning of some glands. Without salts, the body cannot exist as well as without water. Animal lovers and hunters know perfectly well that salt outcrops attract wildlife as much as watering holes!

This is what gives an understanding of why water is so important for bees in early spring! 

During the long months of autumn, winter and spring, the bees, while in winter cluster, consumed honey preserved by them with a minimum water content, and sometimes sugar-honey candy, containing almost no water at all. But at the same time, during all these long months, the bees worked intensively, warming their cluster At the same time, you could perfectly see how much water was released during their breath! So much, so that the pillows got wet, and ice floes often grew on the walls of the hive from the inside! All this water was lost by their bodies, thus reducing the physical capabilities of the bees.

And now, spring comes, and the bees begin to fly and grow the first brood. And what do we see? We see a lot of bees on the very first puddles and thawed patches and, first of all, on dirty puddles and on wet ground. What is the reason for this?

The reason is that the bees, which have lost a huge amount of water and salt during winter, urgently need to restore the water-salt balance. That is why they prefer salted water to plain fresh water. That is why we see them at toilets and cowsheds on puddles of dirty, but rich in salt water. That is why in spring they prefer water to sugar or honey syrup! This is their first task because water in the body is necessary for the bees to start the process of intensive brood rearing. After all, the first thing they do -  is a laying of food in the form of royal jelly in all brood cells, and then replenish it if necessary. It is the presence of a sufficient amount of water and salts in the body of a bee that allows it to intensify metabolic processes in the body and produce a large amount of royal jelly, which, although not too liquid like real milk, but is not completely dry. The “preparation” of this “jelly” requires the bee to release a large amount of moisture from its body, moreover, most of the water must remain in the body of the bee for its normal functioning.

And only a smaller amount of water, namely fresh water, is used to create suitable climatic conditions for brood rearing, namely, to create high humidity in the nest, in which eggs and young larvae do not dry out, but live and transform calmly.

Thus, understanding the process of water-salt metabolism in the body of a bee explains to us the positive effect of drinking bowls with fresh and salted water, especially inside-hive drinkers that are not subject to weather influence, on the growth and spring development of bee colonies. And this is not a task to soak the old crystallized honey, which the old beekeepers otherwise sprinkle with water, thinking that bees need water for this. Bees can perfectly consume even dry granulated sugar in winter, partially losing internal water reserves from their bodies!

Water in spring for bees is the most powerful engine for restoring their organisms after winter and further powerful development of colonies due to the withdrawal of the maximum possible amount of brood for their strength!