The bee colony

A bee cannot survive alone. You need at least one queen and some workers who take on the individual tasks in order to survive. A so-called superorganism consists of several individuals, which is only viable as such.

Queen

The queen is the key to the bee colony. There is only one queen in the colony and she is the only bee that is responsible for laying eggs, so she is the source of genetics. Once fertilized in life, she can lay eggs her whole life, which can take 3-5 years.

Workers

They are also of the female sex, but not fertilized. They represent the majority of the bee colony and perform a wide variety of tasks in the bee colony. Immediately after their birth, they are hive bees and devote themselves to the offspring and feed the larvae, build honeycombs, store nectar and pollen, free the beehive of dead bees and keep watch at the entrance hole. From about the 20th day of life they become forage bees and collect water, pollen, nectar and propolis. After a lifespan of around 40 days in summer and 6-7 months in winter, they finally die.

Drones

These are the male bees in the colony. They are exclusively responsible for the fertilization of the “princesses”. During the summer they let the workers feed them and shortly before winter they are pushed out of the hive by the workers and die of starvation.