Honey Bees
The wonders of nature… bees
Honey bees are one of the most collaborative insects in the world. Have you ever wondered how bees work together in such systematic way to sustain their colony? What are the roles and castes in honey bees?
In the Selfish gene part 2, we mentioned that worker bees are sterile. But what are worker bees? A honey bee colony typically contains three types/castes of bees: queen, workers and drones and each of them have their own role.
Queen bees are the largest bees and the heart of every colony. They are the only bees that are fertile, and are responsible for laying eggs to maintain the hive’s population. A queen bee has the ability to determine the gender of her children, to produce either drone (male) bees or worker (female) bees.
The drone bees are the only male bees and make up around 1% of the population in a colony. Drone bees do not have stinger or any foraging tool, their only purpose is to mate with the queen and care for her. Mating with the queen is a suicidal mission for drone bees and they often get kicked out when there’s a food shortage.
Here comes the female worker bees, they are the most numerous caste in a hive. As their name suggest, they carry out most of the chores, including foraging (looking for food/nectar), feeding the queen, cleaning the cell, guarding the hive, building the wax comp etc. The collaboration between the castes of the bees has made them the most successful organism in the nature!
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