The queen bee is the mother of the colony. Her duty is to ensure the survival of the colony by laying viable eggs. A productive queen on a good day can lay up to 2,000 eggs!
She is cared for constantly by her attendant bees. These dedicated workers feed her, clean her, and see to her every need. She is the largest bee in the colony, and her body is long and slender compared to workers or drones. The queen can sting as many times as she needs to. Her stinger has no barbs; therefore she does not die after a single sting like a worker bee.
2. What is a drone bee’s sole purpose?
The sole purpose of the drone bee is to mate with a queen on her mating flight. They have no other duties in the hive. Drones are the only male members of the colony. Drone bees are the product of unfertilized eggs that the queen will lay specifically to become drones. Drones are more round and fat in size compared to the other bees in the colony. They have larger eyes and lack stingers.
3. What are three different worker bee jobs?
One type of worker bee has already been mentioned, the queen’s attendants. There are also nurse bees, guard bees, gathering bees, and many more. There are quite a few different roles that workers bees take on during their lifetime. Most of the jobs are assigned according to age. When a worker bee first climbs from her cell, she immediately begins cleaning duty. She must clean up her cell and other cells that need to be tidy. The queen bee is picky about which cells she will use to lay eggs. Therefore the cells need to be clean and neat.
Soon after, the worker will become a nurse bee. She tends to the eggs and larvae of the brood. It is only during this young nurse bee stage that workers are able to make royal jelly from a special gland on their head. All bee brood are fed this royal jelly for the first couple of days. Remember that only a larva destined to be a queen is fed exclusively on royal jelly.
When a worker gets a little older, she moves to the hive entrance to be a guard bee. It is then her duty to protect the hive from intruders. She will sting predators and threats to her hive. All worker bees’ stingers have barbs. Once they sting, the barbs stay in the ‘enemy’. When the worker pulls away, she leaves her stinger and part of her insides behind and will then soon die.
The oldest workers in the colony are on gathering duty. These bees forage for nectar and pollen and bring it back to the colony to be made into honey. These forager bees can travel up to two miles away from the hive in search of food sources, and make about ten of these trips per day.
Some other jobs for worker bees are mortuary bees (drag the dead out of the hive), builders (make the wax comb), and scout bees.
Here is a picture that shows a worker, queen, and drone for size and shape comparison:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment