Bee types and roles

In the hive, there are three types of bees. There is the queen, the workers and the drones. Each type of bee has their own job to do.

The Queen:

There is only one queen in a hive. Her job in the hive is to produce more workers and eventually a new queen. A queen is made by an egg laid by the preceding queen. The queen lives for four or five years. After her death, her last eggs are gathered and placed in large cells in the hive. When they hatch, the larvae are fed royal jelly. Royal jelly is a substance secreted by glands in young worker bees. Within two weeks, several new queens emerge. They then duel by stinging each other until only one remains. The new queen will then begin to lay new eggs for the survival of the hive. A queen bee can lay between 1,000 and 2000 eggs per day. If she lives for five years, that would be approximately 10,000 eggs!

The Workers:

The worker bees, all female, have an average life span of four to six weeks. During that time their job changes depending on their age. When the worker is one to two days old, she has the job to clean the cells and keep the brood warm. At three to five days old, she feeds older larvae. At six to eleven days old, she feeds the younger larvae. At twelve to seventeen days old, she is making wax, carrying food, and building comb. At eighteen to twenty-one days old, she is assigned guard duty and is protecting the hive entrance. From twenty-two days until the end of her life, she flies from the hive and collects pollen, nectar and water for the hive.

The Drones:

The drones are male honeybees produced by the unfertilized egg of a queen. The drone's sole function is to mate with a queen from a surrounding hive. Drones are produced when the hive is growing, usually during peak pollination season. Drones die once they mate with a queen. All drones from the same hive are clones of the queen since they are made without genes from a male bee.