Worker
All worker bees are female, but they are not able to reproduce. Worker bees live for 4-9 months during the winter season, but only about 6 weeks during the busy summer months (they literally work themselves to death). Nearly all of the bees in a hive are worker bees. A colony consists of 20,000 – 30,000 bees in the winter, and over 60,000 – 80,000 bees in the summer. The worker bees sequentially take on a series of specific chores during their lifetime: housekeeper; nursemaid; construction worker; grocer; undertaker; guard; and finally, after 21 days they become a forager collecting pollen and nectar. For worker bees, it takes 21 days from egg to emergence. The worker bee has a barbed stinger that results in her death following stinging, therefore, she can only sting once.
Queen
There is usually only one queen per hive. The queen is the only bee with fully developed ovaries. A queen bee can live for 3-5 years. The queen mates only once with several male (drone) bees, and will remain fertile for life. She lays up to 2000 eggs per day. Fertilized eggs become female (worker bees) and unfertilized eggs become male (drone bees). When she dies or becomes unproductive, the other bees will “make” a new queen by selecting a young larva and feeding it a diet of “royal jelly”. For queen bees, it takes 16 days from egg to emergence.
Drone
Male bees are kept on standby during the summer for mating with a virgin queen. They do not participate in making honey or other duties in the colony. The drone has a barbed sex organ and mating is followed by death. There are only 300-3000 drones in a hive. The drone cannot sting. Because they are of no use in the winter, drones are expelled from the hive in the autumn.
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