Heirarchy of the Hive

There are 3 main components to a bee colony. The queen bee, the workers, that are all female, and the drone bees, that are all male. The entire colony works for the queen, and that is their life’s mission. Like clockwork day in and day out, new bees get busy right away, as the others continue their assignments, which is broken down by age of the bee. Newly hatched bees tend to the hive, they stay inside most of the time, and work on making and chewing wax as well as royal jelly, which is fed to all bee larvae, however the queen continues on her special diet of royal jelly the duration of her life. As the bees get old enough to forage, they start to leave the hive, and collect nectar and pollen. Drone bees are not equipped with a stinger, and they do not collect nectar or pollen but have one purpose and one purpose only, and that’s to impregnate the queen. She will mate with anywhere from 20-50 drones, but only once, no matter her life span. There is an exchange of bee communication naturally between colonies and hives, other drones are likely impregnating our queens, and our drones are likely impregnating other queens if that makes sense. It’s the same way they forage, since we’re on such a small plot of land my bees leave and forage and pollinate other people’s crops, as well as other hives and colony’s kept locally are the bees responsible for coming into our yard and foraging and pollinating our crops on our homestead. That is just one of many reasons honey bees are extraordinary.

The queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day! This all depends on the work of the colony as a whole, if there’s enough comb drawn out, and if they’re feeding properly and tending to the brood and all those factors. All of the worker bees have specific jobs to make sure the hive runs smoothly, and the queen stays laying. The fluency of the hive is one of the most consistent things I’ve ever seen in nature, we could learn so much from bees just by their dedication alone. Working from the earliest crack of dawn until dusk, and resting in between they live much like the life of a farmer. It would seem that they have a monarchy going here, however if they lose a queen, they build a new one, so hierarchy would be a better term for a honey bee’s colony.

Worker bees are a magnificent example of etiquette, passion, and obedience, even after thousands of years, the workings of a hive are still stronger than ever. And it’s evolution at its finest, they’re just born into it, and that never changes.

 Worker Bees

Worker bees are the glue that holds the entire colony together. They literally run everything, and they worship the queen knowing she has one role to fulfill, and that is to reproduce. A worker bee has many different assignments both inside and outside of the hive, starting young inside, and aging to move outside of the hive and risking their lives to forage for the rest of the colony. They will collect pollen and nectar as many times as they can in a day’s work. They are also inside of the hive, tending to the queen, the young brood in the cells, they use their wings for temperature control, and they keep everything neat and tidy. On top of having a job, the communication between bees is impeccable. There must be an exchange of nectar from one bee to the next so that the forager can go back out and forage while the hive bee works to fill the cells with nectar that will soon become honey. Also just to be clear the bee never actually ingests the nectar, there is a special sac next to the stomach where they can siphon the nectar in and out of, using their proboscis, which is a straw like tongue identical to that of butterflies. It is this process as well as the exchange of nectar from bee to bee that comes in contact with the bee spit that makes the nectar medicinal, an added benefit to the already abundantly nutritious super food.

 Queen Bee

The anatomy of the queen bee is much different than that of the workers or even drone bees. Her body is much more elongated, it is a darker almost reddish golden color, her segments are different, they aren’t a black and yellow pattern like the workers. She’s a little less fuzzy over all, and her wings are shorter despite her long body shape. Some queens come marked, which makes it much easier to find them when you’re doing a routine inspection. A queen’s stinger has no barbs on it like a normal female worker, a queen will only use her stinger to battle other queens, which can happen on occasion for a handful of reasons. The colony, however, is her protection, she will never have to face the same trials and tribulations as a worker bee. The queen bee lays larvae, that then becomes baby bees or brood, which gets fed, capped, and then they hatch out on their own making their first meal the cap over their cell as they chew their way to freedom.

 Brood

Brood are baby bees, they are either larvae in the process of becoming a bee, or what we call capped brood which has grown to a bee body from a larvae and is now in the 3 day transformation process before emerging as a honey bee. It’s much easier to see new eggs on the black foundation rather than the wax foundation. They look like tiny little lines inside each comb, as they grow and fatten they fill out the comb and take on a hook shape so they can fit. You can see some of the capped brood, where the cells are completely covered over for the bee to finish it’s transformation.