The inner workings of beehives are more complex and organized than you may have ever imagined. Thousands of bees work together to create a highly detailed functioning hive. A honeybee colony is a superorganism or a group that together functions as a single unit.
Let's break down the hive into the different roles honey bees take on:
The Queen Bee:
Probably the most popular bee in the hive, although she often goes unseen as she spends most of her time inside perfecting her one job: laying thousands of eggs. If she becomes unsuccessful the hive will agree to kill the queen and replace her. This is known as "supersedure"- a vocabulary word used commonly among beekeepers. A queen bee is a worker bee that was fed royal jelly from the beginning of her life to make her grow larger and stronger. The hive selects the queen from a group of larva that will all end up as worker bees.
Drone Bees:
A drone is typically larger than a worker bee, making them easily identifiable. They also have larger, buggy eyes. The male's job is to mate with the queen.
Worker Bee:
The worker bees, despite common belief, are all females. Unlike other bees in the hive, worker bees hold different responsibilities depending on the stage in their lives. Their many tasks make them an essential part of a functioning hive. They begin their life helping to remove old eggs and waste and preparing the cells for new eggs to be laid. The worker bee begins it's life feeding and caring for the larva by providing them with pollen. About a month into their lives the worker bee spends her days collecting pollen and nectar from plants in order to produce honey. The worker bee takes on a vast array of jobs throughout her life. Her duties will be broken down in another blog post, you can find more information on the worker bee here.
Despite the organization of a honey bee hive predators, humans, viruses, and climate change is negatively affecting the honey bees. For more information on different issues effecting the bees click here.