There are three different members to a honey bee hive: workers, drones and the queen. While each member of the colony holds an important role, there’s only one true Jack of all trades in the colony: the worker bee. Worker bees are female and they make up the majority of the colony – up to 90%. At the height of the blooming season, they often number from between 50,000 to 80,000 bees! These adult bees are crucial to the hive’s success, taking on a wide variety of tasks to support the colony. In fact, the entire hive consists of a finely tuned social structure where all the bees work together for the colony’s survival.
Because worker bees are involved in so many different tasks, you’ll find them anywhere and everywhere throughout the hive. Although worker bees have a very short life expectancy (only roughly 30 days!), in her short life, a worker bee will take on all of these different roles: housekeeper, nurse bee, attendant to the queen bee, architect, ventilator, guard, and, finally, forager bee. How’s that for a diverse skill set! While workers naturally evolve into these different roles, the “assigning” of the roles is fluid and is always based on the immediate needs of the colony. For example, architect bees may take on the role of fanning bees if the colony experiences a string of hot days and needs added airflow.
THE FIRST FEW DAYS
Housekeeping
Worker bees develop inside honeycomb cells that are capped over with a thin layer of beeswax. When they are ready to emerge, they gnaw away at the wax capping of their cell and crawl out, already eager to get working! Newly emerged bees head straight to their first duty: cleaning out the cells. The first thing a worker bee does after entering the world of the hive is head back to her worker cell and clean it out as quickly as possible, making it ready to receive a new egg. There’s not much fanfare in a honey bee hive, but the worker bees get to work pretty much straight away!
A worker bee’s first role is to act as a house bee, cleaning out empty cells and other parts of the hive. The queen bee will only lay eggs in immaculate cells, and therefore, the house bees’ work is never done.
Any leftover debris is removed by mortuary bees, who ensure the hive stays clean and disease-free. These house bees also play a role in comb building, maintaining the structure that holds the colony together.How long will she be a “housekeeper” for? Worker bees will typically carry out housekeeping duties for the first 1-3 days of their life.
The next two weeks of tasks
The first two weeks are a particularly fluid time in the life of a worker bee. She will move from housekeeping into the role of a nurse bee, feeding and looking after the developing bees in the hive. From that point, she will carry out a whole spectrum of different chores! Everything from acting as a member of the queen bee’s entourage, doting on her every need, to the much less glamorous job of mortuary bees, bringing debris and dead bees from natural die-off out of the hive!
Nurse Bee
As a worker bee matures, she will slowly develop different glands to help her carry out various roles. Some of the first glands to develop are her mandibular and hypo-pharyngeal glands (that’s a mouthful!). These will allow her to produce special nutrient-rich food, such as royal jelly, for the eggs and larvae of her younger brothers and sisters made up of honey, nectar, and royal jelly.
Being a nurse bee is a demanding job! A nurse bee spends anywhere from two to twenty seconds feeding brood cells and will feed up to 1300 cells a day! Nurse bees work tirelessly to ensure that the younger bees, or brood, are well-fed and grow strong. Once the brood rearing phase is complete and the new bees emerge, the nurse bees shift their duties to feeding and grooming younger worker bees
Serving as an Aide to the Queen Bee
Certain lucky worker bees may get the chance to become part of Her Majesty’s court, or her “retinue,” as it is sometimes called. The queen attendants must tend to the queen bee’s every need. They must groom her, feed her, keep her hydrated, and clean away any of her waste.
By doing these duties for the queen bee, it allows her to focus on her sole purpose: to keep the colony going by laying up to 2000 eggs every single day.For more fascinating insights, check out 5 facts about bees that will blow your mind.
Is it true the worker bees kill the Queen bee?The life of a queen bee sounds great, right? It’s not all as pretty as it seems. Even though the queen bee has everything done for her, she is under immense pressure to perform.
Worker bees care for their hive and colony so greatly that if the queen bee is not performing as she should, they can and will kill her to make sure a new queen is brought in, one that can do the job more efficiently and support the needs of the colony better. The workers need a queen, and the queen needs the workers. Without each other, the colony wouldn’t last.
When will a worker bee become an aide to the Queen? A worker bee can be chosen to be an aide to the queen at any age between roughly 7-12 days old.
Wax Mason Role
To produce wax, a worker bee must activate her wax glands situated on the underside of her abdomen. She then excretes small transparent flakes, which, once chewed and molded, become the edifice that is the honeycomb! Workers bees feed on honey to help with the wax-producing process and must consume a lot of honey to reach maximum productivity.
At what age in life do worker bees become wax masons?
Worker bees usually become wax masons between 12-18 days old, but older worker bees can also produce wax if they are required to. At this age, worker bees often overlap duties because they are old enough to conduct more roles within the hive. They just go wherever the colony needs them most. Other duties at this age include making honey and fanning the hive
Airflow Control Role
As an older bee, now aged between 13-18 days old, she may take on more demanding tasks. Airflow control, or “fanning,” is where the worker bee joins a line of her peers at the front of the hive, where they proceed to beat their wings at high speeds to drag in fresh air and circulate it around the hive, cooling it down.
What is the purpose of honey bees Fanning?
To keep the hive at an ideal temperature, especially during brood development, fanning bees use their wings near the hive entrance to circulate fresh air. This behavior is part of their worker bee’s anatomy, designed for highly efficient social bees.
Guard Role
Another role of the worker bee is guard duty. Positioned at the entrance of the hive, guard bees are responsible for protecting the hive from any threats. They inspect any bee entering the hive, making sure that the bee belongs to the colony. Worker bees identify them by scent, and if they don’t smell like they belong to the hive, they won’t be allowed entry. This is to prevent bees from other hives from robbing their resources.
She will also look out for any predators such as wasps, hornets, a bear, or maybe a skunk that could cause a threat to the colony and the hive. If she does spot a threat she may sound the alarm with her pheromones.Forager Role
Finally, for her last duty, the worker bee gets to leave the hive and take to the skies! The foraging bee is the worker bee we notice the most because they are out in the world, in our parks and gardens, visiting flowering plants to collect pollen, nectar, propolis, and water, and bringing it back to the hive.
How far will a worker honey bee travel when she is a forager?
A foraging bee will fly within a radius of 5 km around the hive and will do so vigorously until she eventually dies of fatigue. Foraging behaviour is essential for the colony’s survival, as it provides vital resources like nectar and pollen, which are used for food storage and feeding the brood cells.
OTHER ROLES WORKER BEES CAN CARRY OUT
Winter bee
In colder months, the hive relies on a special generation of winter bees that live much longer than summer bees. A winter bee may live several months, keeping the queen warm and the hive functioning while there’s little honey or food sources available outside.Scout honey Bee
Once the worker bee is old enough and strong enough to leave the hive, she isn’t always foraging for resources like water, nectar, pollen and propolis. She is also required to be a scout from time to time.
Learn how you can also support wild bees by adding a BeeHome to your property.
What is the purpose of a Scout honey Bee?
Scout bees are sent out further than the 5 km radius of the foraging bees to look for potential new homes during bee swarming. They will scout locations before the colony moves to a new home, ensuring that it’s suitable for their needs.
