How old are nurse bees when they graduate into the work bee force?

[Ben Framed]

Generally, how old are nurse bees when they graduate into the work bee force?

[rothbart]

They work from day one. You need to read a book for basics like this.
Forum is not a good way to learn beekeeping.

They start collecting nectar,  polen and water on day 21 usually.

[The15thMember]

They work from day one. You need to read a book for basics like this.
Forum is not a good way to learn beekeeping.

They start collecting nectar,  polen and water on day 21 usually.

Rothbart, Phillip has been beekeeping, and successfully I might add, for 4 years now.  We are all still learning, and this forum is one of many ways to do that. 

Generally, how old are nurse bees when they graduate into the work bee force?

Phillip, there are a lot of jobs that the workers perform between nurse and forager.  I just finished Mark Winston's "Biology of the Honey Bee" (great read by the way), and he has two really good tables in there of the jobs that workers do at various ages, based on various studies.
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This one tabulates all that info into a bar graph, so you can see how it relates more easily, instead of just the hard numbers. 
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[Brian MCquilkin]

Here is a good reference.http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm

[iddee]

All that info is fine for an estimate, but keep in mind, they can advance early, or revert back to old jobs as needed. None of it is locked in stone.

[rothbart]

Rothbart, Phillip has been beekeeping, and successfully I might add, for 4 years now.  We are all still learning, and this forum is one of many ways to do that. 

This is basic knowledge. Forum is just extra help. You need a base to build up
your system, or You will be keeper of bees, not beekeeper 

I just want to help, not critique.. I was like that once.

[BeeMaster2]

Roth,
What Member is saying is that this forum is for asking questions. We enjoy answering questions, no matter how basic they are and we do not discourage our members from asking any questions.
Jim Altmiller

[Ben Framed]

Edited:
Thanks sawdstmakr. Thanks each of you. :-) 

[rothbart]

Roth,
What Member is saying is that this forum is for asking questions. We enjoy answering questions, no matter how basic they are and we do not discourage our members from asking any questions.
Jim Altmiller

I get that. I just wanted to point out how important is to build a basic knowledge
for progression in beekeeping. Forum is too slow for that IMHO. But ok, there is fun
in interacting with people too. This is one nice and kind forum.

Here is one free basic book.

https://archive.org/download/cu31924003445354/cu31924003445354.pdf

It's a bit old but is alright.

[van from Arkansas]

Member, that is so cool, biology of the honeybee, with references no less.  Thank you for posting.  A good rule of thumb.  I realize the data is not set in stone but serves s a good guideline.

Cheers

[van from Arkansas]

They work from day one. You need to read a book for basics like this.
Forum is not a good way to learn beekeeping.

They start collecting nectar,  polen and water on day 21 usually.

[attachment=0][/attachment]

The photo is how I learned bees as a kid and today an old fert.  A mentor named Mark was of great value as well as books when I was young.  There was no forum, no internet when I was a kid.  Ya, I?m that old, I used the local library.  Lol

To this day, I still grab a chair, a lemonade, a smoke, relax in shade and just watch the bees coming and going.  I cannot tell how the guard bees recognize their own bees?  Some bees are sniffed, checked  upon the entrance whereas others just walk right into the hive.  I dunno?  I?ll keep watching though.

Cheers

[Ben Framed]

> Phillip, there are a lot of jobs that the workers perform between nurse and forager.  I just finished Mark Winston's "Biology of the Honey Bee" (great read by the way), and he has two really good tables in there of the jobs that workers do at various ages, based on various studies.
[attachment=0][/attachment]
[attachment=1][/attachment]
 
This one tabulates all that info into a bar graph, so you can see how it relates more easily, instead of just the hard numbers. 
[attachment=2][/attachment]
[/quote]

Good post, thanks Member!

[Ben Framed]

Here is a good reference.http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm

Thanks Brian, Mr Bush has a lot of good information on his site.

All that info is fine for an estimate, but keep in mind, they can advance early, or revert back to old jobs as needed. None of it is locked in stone.

Thanks iddee. I know you know from first hand experience.

[BeeMaster2]

Van,
My first 2 years I also did a lot of watching. First it was in a chair watching them then I sat between my 2 hives.
I learned a lot just watching the entrance.
Jim Altmiller

[The15thMember]

The bees are the best teachers. 

[FloridaGardener]

Thanks for the link to the Dadant book ! ! !

https://ia800206.us.archive.org/4/items/cu31924003445354/cu31924003445354.pdf

I downloaded as Adobe PDF.  In your Adobe reader you can add "bookmarks," and keep a column on the left wide of the page that allows the reader to jump to the subheadings. 

[rothbart]

Thanks for the link to the Dadant book ! ! !

Member, that is so cool, biology of the honeybee, with references no less.  Thank you for posting.  A good rule of thumb.  I realize the data is not set in stone but serves s a good guideline.

There are many free books on archive.org.

link is messed up for some reason

try copy paste this and not click on it

"https://archive.org/details/cornell?sort=-week&&and[]=subject%3A%22Bees%22"

If link does not work, just search Cornell University Library and then bees
in Topics & Subjects.