The honeybee colony has three types of bees: the queen, the drone, and the workers. Honeybees live in a hive. A hive is a nest with space to store honey. The honeybee hive is constructed by worker honeybees frombeeswax. The hive is waterproof with several cells. There are about 25 cells per square inch. Each cell is hexagonal in shape.
Once the cells have been constructed, the queen lays eggs. The workers enlarge the colony by adding more cells. Once this is done, the queen lays more eggs.Cells are made of beeswax.
The queen honeybee lays eggs that hatch into workers.The workers feed the queen and care for the queen. Thequeen doesn't rule the colony, but she is what keeps thecolony together.
The drone is a male honeybee whose only job is to mate with the queen. Drones are raised in cells larger than worker cells.Drones have no stinger. Once the drones have served their purpose for mating with the queen, workers drive them out of the hive to starve to death.Worker bees do all the work in the honeybee colony. Workers fly from flower to flower to gather nectar. This process benefits bees and helps pollinate the flower.
The youngest worker bees clean out the cells and help build the honeycomb. When a worker is 10 days to 2 weeks old, it flies to fields to collect nectar, pollen, and water.
Several workers stand guard at the nest. Workers feedthe young bees. These guards will attack intruders.
A strong bee colony may contain 50,000 bees. Bees canfly to a speed of 12 miles per hour. Bees swarm and leave the hive with an old queen once the new queen is in place.
