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The Honey Bee Colony: An Organized Society

Hive Structure

'Domesticated' honey bees are either inserted or enticed into an artificial bee colony built by a beekeeper. At the very minimum (more information will be provided in the section on beekeeping), an artificial bee hive consists of a bottom tray, a bee box filled with frames, each with a wax insert, and a lid. Boxes can be stacked to accommodate larger colonies, and various items can be added to the contraption to assist either the beekeeper with bee product collection or the bees with protection against invaders. Once installed in an artificial bee hive, the bee colony quickly gets to work making their hives sanitary with propolis and building the structures they need to house the queen's eggs.

A natural honey bee hive or nest looks much different than the modern, artificial hive. First, bees choose their location, not the beekeeper. Second, they build their nests for their convenience, not that of the beekeeper. Thus, nests are often high up or in a hard to reach place - they don't have human honey harvesting in mind. They will usually choose a protected space, such as a hollow in a rock or tree, and inner construction is organized in a similar way to the artificial hive with parallel, vertically laid out sections of honeycomb. Cells are built with a plan in mind - from bottom to top, you will find cells that will house queen, drone, then worker brood cells. Storage of pollen and honey can be found above these.

A honey bee colony can consist of between 40,000 to 80,000 bees, and each member has its job to do. No bee 'sits around' - as we'll see with the drones below, if bees no longer serve a purpose to the hive, they are not kept around. Responsibilities in the hive are divided according to sex and age.

Roles and Responsibilities

There are three types of honey bee: the queen, the drone, and the worker. Within the worker class, there are several functions. Roles are discussed below.

Queen

The queen is the head of the bee colony, and culture is centered around keeping her healthy and productive. Her sole purpose is to lay eggs to keep the bee colony populated and thriving, and she can lay up to 2,000 per day. The queen drives activity in the hive through her pheromones, chemicals secreted by her body to send specific messages.

A young queen will undertake a mating flight early in her career (three days of age) during which she will mate with several male (drone) bees. This is the only time she will need to mate, as enough sperm will be stored within her body to fertilize eggs as they are laid for the duration of her life - approximately 3 to 5 years.

The queen can lay both fertilized and unfertilized eggs, and she has nothing to do with them once they leave her body. In fact, it isn't even she that decides which type of egg to lay. The size of cell she is brought to by accompanying worker bees determines what the queen will lay.

Fertilized eggs become female (worker) bees, and unfertilized become drones. The bulk of the eggs laid are fertilized - the queen herself began as a regular, fertilized egg, although there is planning involved. Eggs destined to become queens start out as regular workers but are moved by workers to special cells shaped to house a larger bee. The growing bee continues to be fed 'royal jelly' after the normal three-day period during which all bees receive this high-protein substance.

Drone

The males of the bee colony are called drones. They are larger than worker bees, but smaller than queens. They have large eyes - about twice the size of workers' or queens' eyes. They also have a larger abdomen. Drones are only present from the late spring to the late fall (at most). Because they only serve to impregnate young queens, and contribute nothing else to the bee colony, there is no reason to keep them around. They are not equipped with stingers, thus they cannot help defend the hive. They also do not provide nourishment or cleaning skills. Workers look after them completely. Once their purpose is fulfilled, workers either neglect them or physically drive them out of the hive and they die. Life span is usually 2 months at the most.

Worker

There are a number of important tasks that must be taken care of to ensure the smoothing running of a hive. Workers form the bulk of the bee colony's population, and they are well named - they do the work. As a result, worker life spans are shorter. During foraging season, workers only live 4-6 weeks, whereas in the winter, they may live approximately 4 months. The tasks taken on by workers are development- or age-dependent and move gradually from in-hive work to jobs away from home, and follow the following progression.

Days 1-2: Cleaning Tasks
Fresh out of the brood cell, bees are ready to work. Their initial tasks during days 1 to 2 following birth involve cleaning and preparing recently evacuated brood cells for the next eggs.

Days 3-11: Nursing Duties
There are a few key tasks within this stage of work which progress with worker development:

• Days 3-5 - Feeding honey and pollen (also called brood food or bee bread) to worker and drone brood older than 3 days.
• Days 6-11 - Producing royal jelly (in the hypopharyngeal glands within the head) and feeding it to drone and worker brood for the first three days of the larval stage, and to queen brood for the duration of larval stage feeding. Royal jelly is a creamy substance high in proteins and enzymes and is what produces queens from ordinary worker larvae.

Days 12-17: Wax Production
When the four wax production glands (located on the underside of the abdomen) have developed, workers are ready to move on to a new task. At day 12, bees work on comb construction projects such as cell building and repair.

Days 10-20 days approximately: Other In-Hive Jobs

• Sealing/Capping: Workers place a wax seal on brood cells, and cells that store honey and pollen.
• Cleaning and Sanitizing: Removal of dead bees and other debris from the hive as well as the covering of hive surfaces with propolis, an antibacterial and antifungal substance that bees create out of plant and tree resin mixed with nectar and pollen.
• Hive Organization and Regulation: Workers will relocate eggs destined to become queen bees from worker brood cells to queen brood cells. Pollen is prepared and packed into cells for storage. Temperature regulation is also taken care of by worker bees through 'fanning'. Beating their wings can direct airflow and thus raise or lower the temperature of the hive. The hive needs to stay at approximately 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit).
• Feeding/Attending: Workers at this age tend to the feeding of drones as they are unable to feed themselves. The queen is also attended and fed by workers.

Days 18-21: Protective Duty
As the workers mature, their duties take them towards the hive entrance as well as around the outside of the hive.

• Entrance Guards: Acting almost as border/customs officials, these bees watch over the entrance to the hive and inspect entering bees for food and hive scent. If entrants don't 'smell right', they are deemed intruders and are turned over to soldiers.
• Soldiering: If intruders are detected, these workers, placed near the hive entrance, will attack them.
• Extra-Hive Guard Duty: Some bees will fly around the outside of the hive checking out anything that is out of the ordinary.
• Water Carriers: If the hive is at risk of overheating, bees are assigned to fetch water from outside the hive and bring it back to those bees regulating the hive temperature through fanning their wings.

Days 22 - Death: Foraging
The last and most challenging job for workers is that of foraging and scouting. In this position, scouts will explore nearby territory for promising nectar and pollen sources and bring information back to the hive to communicate to other bees. Once communicated, all foragers have the information necessary to find the source, and begin the several trips needed to collect food and bring it back to the hive.

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