Work Bees Do

Worker Bees.

The vast majority of adult honey bees in any colony are female worker bees. The jobs of the worker bees are:

tending and feeding young bees (larvae),

making honey, making royal jelly and beebread to feed larvae,

producing wax,

cooling the hive by fanning wings,

gathering and storing pollen, nectar and water,

guarding the hive,

building, cleaning and repairing the comb,

and feeding and taking care of the queen and drones.

The Queen Bee.

There is only one queen in a honey bee colony. She is slightly larger than a worker bee, with a longer abdomen. She does not have pollen baskets on her legs. It is her job to lay eggs. She can lay up to 2000 a day!

The Drones.

The drones could be called the couch potatoes of the insect world. While they wait for an opportunity to mate with a queen, they are fed and cared for by workers, and only occasionally fly out of the hive to test their wings. If no opportunity to mate arises by fall, the drones are ejected from the nest by the workers and left to fend for themselves.

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