Honeybee's Colony

The queen honeybee's only role in the colony is to lay the eggs. She can live for up to three or four years, and can lay up to 2,000 eggs in one day!

Honeybee looking for nectar

Courtesy of Bob Delaney

Honeybee looking for nectar
Courtesy of Bob Delaney

Honeybee looking for nectar

Courtesy of Bob Delaney

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The workers are all infertile, female bees that are smaller than the queen bee.

Have you ever heard the expression 'busy as a bee'? This is probably after the workers in the colony who clean out the cells, take care of the young bees, collect nectar from flowers and build the honeycomb.

The drones are the male honeybees. They are big, clumsy creatures, with hairy bodies. Their only purpose in the colony is to mate with the female queen bees. After mating, the drone bees die.


Bees are well known for their sting, but did you know that not all bees have the ability to sting?

The drones have no sting at all.

The workers have a long, straight sting with hooks on it. These hooks will sink into your skin, which means that it will get stuck and the sting will be torn away from the bee's body. This is their only method of defence but once a worker bee has used its sting, it will die a few hours later.

The queen honeybee also has a sting, but she will only use it to kill another rival queen. The queen honeybee's sting is straight and smooth so it will not get torn from her body when she uses it. This means that she will not die after using it.