Workers, Drones & The Queen

Once you’ve selected the right type of bee for you, you’ll want to know more about the different sub-classifications within those species. All beehives are made up of three different classifications of bees. There is always one queen in the hive. The queen is the mother of most of the bees that are in the hive. She also doesn’t do anything but lay eggs and have more babies.

The queen is selected by worker bees while in the larvae stage. They are then fed a special diet which allows them to be sexually mature. They are typically the only mated female adult and they are the only ones that are capable of reproducing. The other bees will also follow her and protect her. If you want to move your bees she is the one you need to move. Be careful nothing happens to her however as the bees will have trouble adapting if their queen is killed.

Worker bees are exclusively female; however they are not able to reproduce. These are the bees that you see most often when you’re outside because they’re the ones that will gather pollen and transfer it back to the hive. They also seal the honey, feed the drones and take care of the queen. In this way, they are better capable of caring for all of the different parts of the hive.

Finally, drones are the males of the hive .They do not sting and do not engage in any pollinating either. They actually don’t do anything but mate with the queen bee (though not the queen from their own hive). They are not as important to the overall success of the hive as they are only responsible for mating.