Types of Bees in a Colony

Bees are the little farmers that help farmers with their crops. Almost all bees have something to do with propagating some species of plants which in turn help us increase our food sources. There is a hierarchy on the colony that classifies what types of bees are there and what they do.

Queen Bee

The queen bee is usually the only female bee in the colony that is capable of reproduction. Although the queen bee has a limited life span of only one to three years, these types of bees are the most important to the colony. Their importance is measured in relation to their effort of laying eggs to supply the colony with more workers bees and more drones. This ensures that the colony will be bigger and stronger and there are more food gatherers as well as those who take care of the larvae.

The queen bee is considerably larger than all other types of bees in the colony. She lacks the basic food gathering tools that are present with the worker bees. She also has stinger that she can use several times without any danger of dying unlike the other types of bees that die immediately after stinging.

Drones

These types of bees are the most disposable of all the types of bees in the colony. Their only purpose in their short life is to mate with the queen, after which they die. Drones are the types of bees that have no stingers and cannot fend for themselves. Worker bees feed them until the time that they are needed by the queen bee. The effect of mating with the drones can last for the entire lifetime of the queen since the sperm that they give remain viable in her abdomen even after such a long time.

Worker Bees

These types of bees are the most prevalent in any colony. Workers bees are the epitome of workers that work almost endlessly. These types of bees bear the brunt of maintaining the health and well being of all other bees in the colony. They gather the food, ventilate the hive, construct cells, take care of the larvae and the queen, protect the hive and many other endless tasks.

These types of bees have an average life span of six to seven weeks. They are extremely busy and initially start the first three weeks of their lives in the hive fixing cells and feeding the larvae.

These three types of bees are the more common in any colony. Some different kinds of bees may have other types of bees outside of the three mentioned above.