Topic – Three Kinds of Bees

Three Kinds of Bees

Queen, Drone, and Worker bee

Bees live in homes called hives. Many thousands of bees live in one hive. A group of bees that lives in one hive is called a colony. Every colony has three kinds of bees.

Queen Bee

Each colony of bees has only one queen bee. The queen is larger than the other bees. Her only job is to lay eggs, and she can lay up to 2,000 eggs in one day.

Worker Bees

A colony has thousands of worker bees. All worker bees are female. They got their name because they do all the work, except laying eggs. The many jobs of a worker bee include collecting nectar and pollen from flowers, feeding the queen bee, looking after the babies that hatch, and keeping the hive clean.

Worker bees also keep the inside of the hive at the right temperature. When the hive gets too warm, worker bees go to the entrance of the hive and flap their wings. The wings act like fans and push out the warm air.

In cold weather, worker bees inside the hive flap their wings, shiver, and wiggle their bodies. All this activity makes their bodies warmer. The warmth from their bodies heats up the hive.

Drones

The hundreds of male bees in a colony are called drones. The drones are about the same size as workers, but drones have much bigger eyes. Drones are the only bees in a colony that do not have stingers.

A drone’s job is to fly around, find a queen bee from another colony, and be her mate. Once the queen bee has a mate, she can start to lay eggs in her own hive.

In fall, worker bees force all the drones to leave the hive. The drones die. New drones will hatch from some of the eggs the queen has laid.

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