Oftentimes hundreds of bees will work on the same small section of comb.Ĭapping Honeycomb: Bees secrete beeswax and use it to cap pupae cells and cells full of ripened honey. After they have dried, undertaker bees pick them up, fly them several hundred meters from the hive, and drop them (to prevent dead bees from accumulating by the hive, which could attract pests or pestilence).īuilding Honeycomb: Bees secrete beeswax and use it to build honeycomb. Undertaker duties: Although 90% of bees die outside the hive, those that do not are dropped immediately outside the hive to dry. Nursing: Nurse bees feed and care for growing larvae.Īttending the Queen: Attendants to the queen groom her and feed her frequently.Ĭleaning the Hive: This may involve cleaning used cells or clearing the hive of debris.Ĭleaning other Bees: These chores involve cleaning dust, stray hairs, and other debris off several others in rapid succession. Below are some of the jobs in the hive.Įver wonder how bees communicate? They dance! Find out what each dance means. Some are scouts, some are guards, some care for the queen, some produce honey, etc. The female worker bees have different positions within the hive. Worker bees are responsible for every job in the hive except reproduction. “A woman’s work never ends.” Nowhere is this statement truer than in the hive, where all of the work is done by female bees, which outnumber male bees by a ratio of 100 to 1. But, don’t worry…our male bees don’t suffer because Hawaii’s year-round warm climate ensures consistent warm weather…and our beekeepers make sure they are always in a honey flow! And, when times are lean or during the winter (when the queen does not mate), worker bees force drones outside the hive, leaving them to starve. Drones are incapable of feeding themselves or foraging for food, they lack stingers, and they die immediately after mating. While this may be appealing to some males, a drone’s life is hardly enviable. And, there are 100 female worker bees for every male drone bee. Learn more about the queen here: 7 Fascinating Facts About the Queen BeeĪ male drone has only one purpose in life: to mate with the queen. When the queen dies (or if she slows down egg production), worker bees once again designate queen cells and raise new virgin queens. The worker bees forage for nectar and pollen less, and when they do forage, they bring less back to the hive. Without a queen, life in the hive grows chaotic. Then, they are fed more “royal jelly” (which contains more honey and pollen than the “larval jelly” that is eaten by workers and drones), allowing them to grow larger than other female bees. Queens become queens only because as eggs they had the good fortune of being laid in cells specifically designated for raising queens. Becoming the queen bee is a matter of luck. She lays all the eggs (about 1,500 per day!) and only leaves the hive once in her life in order to mate. The queen is like the goddess: her life is committed to selfless service by being the reproductive center of the hive. The worker bees are responsible for everything else: gathering nectar, guarding the hive and honey, caring for the queen and larvae, keeping the hive clean, and producing honey. The queen’s only job is to lay eggs and a drone’s job is to mate with the queen. ![]() Each hive has one queen, and 100 female worker bees for every male drone bee. ![]() Each of our hives each has about 50,000 bees.
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