Who’s Who in the Hive

As honey bees are our Dry Creek Wonderland residents, here’s some info on the ingenious ways they operate as a species.

• The honey bee hive is what one could call a "superorganism" in which all bees work together for the survival of the colony and each bee has a distinct role and goal to fulfill. Their social system is organised for maximum efficiency.

• The Queen Bee is the only fertile female in the hive. Her job is to lay eggs that become the next generation of bees. She’s the mother of all the bees in the hive.The Queen stays in the hive 24/7 laying eggs, except for when she emerges for the mating flight. Her eggs hatch into larvae and then grow into pupae before they emerge as fully formed adult bees. It’s a cycle similar to the metamorphosis of a butterfly.

• The Worker Bees are the female bees that do all the work in the hive: foraging, making honey, tending the babies, protecting the hive, and taking care of the queen. They have a short lifespan of about only 6 weeks in summer.

• The Drones bees are the males and their main job is to mate with the queen. They don’t do any of the work of harvesting or processing pollen and honey and they’re evicted from the hive in winter when they’re no longer needed.