In this article, we will explore what worker bees are, their role in the bee colony, their birth, the work they do, how long they live, and other aspects of their life.
Worker bee meaning
Worker bees are the most numerous individuals in a bee colony. They form the main backbone of the colony. While the queen bee and drones reproduce the future bee offspring, without worker bees a bee family cannot exist.
They are called worker bees because they do all the basic work in the hive. The worker bees are responsible for providing the hive with nectar, pollen, water, and feeding the offspring.
How worker bees are born
Worker bees emerge from a fertilised egg that is laid by the queen bee. From that egg a queen may emerge later on. But it all depends on the type of feeding she receives.
If the queen is fed exclusively with royal jelly, the worker bee is fed only for the first three days, and then they switch to a mixture of pollen and honey. The entire development cycle from egg to emergence from the cell takes 21 days. After emergence, the worker bee immediately starts its duties.
Are worker bees male or female?
The worker bees are female. The queen lays a fertilised egg in the honeycomb, from which the female worker bee emerges. In fact, it is the same queen, but smaller in size, with other forms and most importantly with underdeveloped reproductive organs, which do not allow laying fertilised eggs.
Therefore, all worker bees in the hive are female.
What do worker bees do?
Worker bees do many jobs in the hive. All of these jobs are important for the survival of the bee colony.
Feeding the larvae. When the queen lays the eggs from which the future bees emerge, the task of worker bees is to feed them first with royal jelly and then with a mixture of pollen and honey. They do this until the cells are sealed with wax caps.
Nectar collection. The task of collecting nectar and bringing it to the hive also depends on the worker bees. To do this, they collect nectar with their long proboscis, visiting many flowers. During these flights they are exposed to many dangers and risk not being able to return to their hive.
To collect 1 gram of nectar, a bee needs to visit 20 000 flowers. It has to make 15 trips because the bee’s stomach can hold up to 70 mg of nectar. Some of this nectar will be eaten by the bee itself during the long flight.
Scouting. Before the bees fly out in masses in the direction of the best nectar source, scouting is carried out. The scout bees fly out earlier in search of the best honey plants. Once identified, they tell the other forager bees where to fly to. They do this by means of a special bee dance.
Nectar Acceptance. When forager bees bring nectar to the hive, they pass it to the receiver bees, who invert this nectar and deposit it in the cells of the honeycomb.
Water supply. Water supply is also an important job in the hive. It is handled by specially allocated bees. As a rule, these bees are already quite old.
Cleaning the hive. An important job in the hive is to keep it clean. The bees take great care not to let various microbes and bacteria enter the hive. In this they are perfectly helped by propolis, which they produce on their own to sanitise the hive and seal cracks in it.
Hive security. Hive guarding is an obligatory function of a bee colony. The guard bees are constantly on duty at the hive’s entrance, checking all incoming bees. Their task is to keep out strangers and let in their own. They determine who is their own and who is someone else’s by pheromones. Also enemies of bees – wasps, hornets – want to get into the hive. The guard bees also prevent them from entering.
Building new honeycombs. Worker bees need to build new honeycombs for brood rearing, nectar storing and honey storage.
Number of worker bees in the hive
There can be different numbers of bees in a hive. It all depends on the strength of the colony. In winter, the average number of bees is 35 thousand, and in summer it increases to 70-100 thousand and even more. A bee colony with less than 18-20 thousand bees is considered weak.
How long do worker bees live?
The lifespan of worker bees can vary depending on the time of year. This is because bees are not equally active in different time periods. For example, their activity is minimal in winter and maximum in summer.
In summer, during the active honey harvest, worker bees spend the maximum amount of energy to collect honey. They are constantly flying out of the hive to collect honey. Sometimes they have to travel considerable distances, expending a great deal of vitality. They also spend energy processing nectar into honey and sealing the honeycomb. During this active period, a worker bee lives for 30-45 days.
But in autumn, when the last young worker bees are born. They are no longer involved in growing brood, collecting nectar and processing it into honey. They only reserve energy to survive the long winter, which in some regions is up to 6-7 months. Such bees live for 6-8 months and die only in spring when they grow new bees to replace them.
Do worker bees sting?
All worker bees have a stinger. The bee stinger is a modified ovipositor that has evolved into a weapon.
Bees don’t attack anyone on purpose. But if there is danger to them and the colony, they use their stinger to defend the hive.
The sting of worker bees is not smooth like a queen’s, but jagged. So when it stabs an enemy, it stays in him. But since the stinger is an extension of the bee’s inner bodies, it detaches from them. Because of this, the bee dies after stinging its victim.
At the moment of stinging and penetration of the stinger into the enemy, bee venom is ingested. It can cause an allergic reaction that can kill a person.
The main component of the venom that causes an allergic reaction is histamine. But in addition to him, together with the sting, a whole set of chemicals enters your body. The main active ingredient is melittin. It causes pain by acting on the nerve endings of cells. Hyaluronidase and phospholipase help the poison penetrate deeper into the tissue, disrupting the cell membranes. And norepinephrine constricts the blood vessels, causing the toxin to concentrate at the site of ingestion, which means all the pain is concentrated in one place.
Can worker bees lay eggs?
When a worker bee is born, it cannot lay eggs. Because of the feeding pattern of the larvae, the worker bee’s reproductive organs are underdeveloped. And if there is a good, healthy queen bee in the colony, these reproductive organs do not develop and eggs are not laid by worker bees.
But if the colony loses a queen bee and does not have a queen bee for a long time, the worker bees begin to develop reproductive organs. Then the worker bee starts laying eggs. But the difference is that all these eggs are unfertilised and only males – drones – emerge from them.
It is not difficult to realise that eggs have been laid by a worker bee. Just look at the honeycomb cells. A normal queen bee lays one fertilised egg per cell in the centre of the cell. Whereas worker bees lay several eggs in one cell, chaotically. Eggs lie both in the centre and on the edges. This is a sure sign that the colony has been missing a queen for a long time and the worker bees are trying to replace her.
How worker bees distribute duties
From the moment a worker bee is born, it has responsibilities. These responsibilities change as the worker bee matures.
After the bee emerges on day 1-2 of its life, it heats the brood. On the 3rd to 5th day of life, she performs orientation flights around the hive and carries out debris. From day 4 to 10 of life, the worker bee produces royal jelly to feed the larvae of her offspring. From day 10 to day 18 the bee develops wax glands and actively produces beeswax from which it actively builds new honeycombs and seals cells with honey. After the 18th day of life, the bee begins to collect nectar from flowers. She does this for the rest of her life. Towards the end of its life, old bees switch to bringing water into the hive.
Worker bees are the main pollinators
Worker bees are effective pollinators, although they don’t do it on purpose. When they visit flowers in search of nectar, they fly from flower to flower of different plants. When they visit a flower, pollen is attached to their legs. As they fly to another flower, they transfer this pollen. Eventually, the plants exchange pollen and the result is fruit.
The role of bees in agriculture has been noted many times by many scientists and international organisations. It has been proven that one third of all crops on the planet depend on pollination by bees.
Conclusion
Worker bees are the most numerous species of bees in a hive. It can be said that without them, the existence of all bee colonies is impossible. They are the ones who do all the work of maintaining life in the hive, collecting honey, and pollination.