Honey Bee Roles in Colonies
Honey bee colonies have three types of bees: workers (female), drones (male), and our Queen (female). Worker bees have earned their title, as they are the group that completes all of the tasks in the hive for the collective colony to survive. You may find that more happens in a honey bee hive beyond honey production!
The following are some examples of different jobs a worker bee may have over the course of her life.
Nurse Bees: Worker bees universally start their lives as "nurse" bees, taking on the role of feeding and taking care of the hive's brood. At this early stage of life they have not yet developed the ability to fly, so they stay in the "brood nest", meaning the area that the baby bees are located.
Attendant Bees: Very few workers get the privilege to serve the Queen as being her attendant. These bees spend their days feeding and grooming the Queen, as she is busy laying up to 2,000 eggs a day!
Guard Bees: The few bees that attain the position of "Guard Bee" are among the older folk in the hive- the position requires well-developed wings and stingers to ward off intruders. There are many pests that attempt to enter a hive over the course of the year, including mice, skunk, hornets, wasps, yellow jackets, and even fellow honey bees from neighboring hives! It is the guard bee's job to protect the entrance of the hive by allowing only the resident bees to enter. Honey bees carry an identifier pheromone from the Queen of the colony that indicates if they belong to a hive.
Forager Bees: These bees are the ones that go flower to flower pollinating and gathering resources for the hive. These bees are the typically the oldest population in the hive. Foragers can fly a 3 mile radius around their homebase to collect pollen, nectar, and resin to make propolis (essentially a cleaning agent the honey bees use to clean the hive body)
Nurse Bees
The picture to your right shows nurse bees on a frame of brood, buzzing around to take care of the developing baby bees! Under the wax cappings are larvae, and once they are ready to enter their life as a honey bee they will emerge and begin their job as a nurse bee.
Forager Bees
This forager is on a mission with her sisters to collect as much pollen and nectar as possible! This worker is on a marigold flower that reliably produces nectar and pollen for honey bees across the globe every year. This forager will take the gains from this flower back to the hive where her sisters will begin the process of making honey and pack away pollen in beeswax cells!
In the hive of life, always bee kind.
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