Sweet Fact about Honeybees
Photos Courtesy USDA,
Natural Resources
Conservation Service
Each hive contains three kinds of honeybees
- Queen
- Only one per hive
- Largest bee in the hive
- The mother of all the bees in the hive
- May lay 1,500 eggs per day
- Worker Bees
- 60,000 to 80,000 in each hive
- Smallest bees in the hive
- Fly about 15 miles per hour
- All are females
- Obtain nectar from flowers
- Bring nectar to the hive
- Build the honeycombs (6-sided cells used to store honey)
- Make honey from nectar
- Keep the hive clean
- Feed the queen, the drones, and the young
- Keep hive temperature at about 95º F.
- Guard the hive by stinging trespassers (unwelcome visitors)
- Die after stinging an animal or human
- Drones
- Male bees
- Helpless—must be fed by worker bees
- Defenseless—no stinger
- Mate with queen bee and then die
- Up to 200 drones in each hive during the summer
- All die in the fall after being kicked out of the hive by worker bees
