Three Castes of a Colony.
Each honey bee colony is made up of three distinct groups, or “castes.”
Queen- Supreme Mother of the entire colony. Typically there is only one queen per colony, but biology is messy, and it’s not unheard of to find multiple queens, especially in a ginormous colony, as an older queen is transitioning out, or during swarm season. The Supreme Mother Queen is the only mated bee in the colony and lays roughly 1,000-2,000 eggs per day. That’s more than her own body weight in eggs! She chooses to lay either fertilized female eggs (workers) or unfertilized male eggs (drones) based on cell size made by the female worker bees.
Drones- Are always male bees. They are larger than female worker bees, have gigantic eyes and no stinger. Their role is to carry genetic coding of the queen through their sperm, which insures the queen’s genetic line continues. In order to pass only maternal genetics drones are born from only the queen’s egg (unfertilized,) therefore drones have no father. They mate with virgin queens on mating flights and consequently die in this process. Drones do not bring resources into the hive, but they do consume resources, and this is an important factoid to remember! It clearly explains why male bees are present in a colony only at certain times of the year when resources are abundant.
Workers- These are female bees and make up the majority of a colony. It’s almost guaranteed the honey bees you see outside the hive are females. They roles of a female worker bee are many, such as caring for eggs and keeping the brood nest warm, tending to the queen, cleaning the hive, and foraging outside the hive for food, water and propolis. Many people mistakingly believe the queen dictates what goes on inside the colony, when in fact it’s the collective effort of the females worker bees that determine what the queen does. (MIND BLOWN, I KNOW!)