Honey Odyssey

Who does what in a honey bee colony

A honey bee colony runs on three castes and on workers whose jobs change as they age.

Applies to: Apis mellifera (western honey bee). Some general statements come from an FAO handbook written for Asia, which also covers Apis cerana; see notes.   Region: Lifespan figures: US Mid-Atlantic extension guidance (summer six weeks) and a Czech Republic study citing earlier work (15 to 48 days; up to eight months). Drone eviction: regions with cold winters.

Who does what in a honey bee colony
Photo: Nick Pitsas, CSIRO, CC BY 3.0

Three kinds of bee

Biologists group the members of a honey bee colony, queen, workers and drones, into three categories called castes.Confirmed fact, source 1 A colony normally has only one queen, and her main job is to lay eggs.Confirmed fact, source 2 A single queen may lay up to about 250,000 eggs in a year.Reported by the farm, source reported 2 Drones are males. They gather no food, and their biological role is to mate with queens.Confirmed fact, source 1 Workers are the smallest bees in the colony and make up the great majority of its members.Confirmed fact, source 2

A career that follows age

According to an FAO handbook on beekeeping in Asia, which covers both Asian and western honey bees, a newly emerged worker is too weak in her first few days to do much more than inspect and clean empty cells.Observation, source obs. 1 Young nurse bees feed larvae with a fat and protein rich secretion from glands in their heads, the hypopharyngeal glands.Confirmed fact, source 1 The same FAO handbook says workers more than about two weeks old are often the ones guarding the hive entrance.Observation, source obs. 1 The FAO handbook gives about two to three weeks as the usual age at which workers start foraging; the exact age varies.Statistical estimate, source est. 1 Foraging is a worker's last job; once she starts, she keeps foraging for the rest of her life.Confirmed fact, source 1

A flexible schedule

Scientists call this age-based division of labour temporal polyethism: young workers stay inside, older workers move outward and finally forage.Confirmed fact, source 3 The age schedule is not fixed. It can speed up, pause or even run backwards when the colony's needs change.Confirmed fact, source 3 If a colony loses its foragers, more young workers start foraging earlier than usual.Confirmed fact, source 3 Nurse bees usually carry less juvenile hormone and more vitellogenin, a yolk protein, than foragers do.Confirmed fact, source 3 A widely held model says vitellogenin holds juvenile hormone in check, and as it is used up, rising hormone levels push nurses toward foraging.Reported by the farm, source reported 3

Short summer lives, long winter lives

A honey bee worker in summer lives about six weeks, according to US Mid-Atlantic extension guidance.Statistical estimate, source est. 2 Researchers in the Czech Republic, citing earlier lifespan observations, give summer worker lifespans of 15 to 48 days.Observation, source obs. 4 The same source, citing earlier work, says workers of the winter generation can survive up to about eight months.Observation, source obs. 4 Long-lived winter bees store more vitellogenin and have a larger fat body, the insect organ that stores nutrients.Confirmed fact, source 4 In regions with cold winters, drones are usually pushed out of the hive in autumn as forage runs short, and they die.Observation, source obs. 2

Sources

  1. Akratanakul, P. (1990). Beekeeping in Asia. FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 68/4. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Chapter 2: Honeybee biology. Link
  2. Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium (MAAREC). The Colony and Its Organization. University of Delaware, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Link
  3. Schilcher, F., Hilsmann, L., Ankenbrand, M. J., Krischke, M., Mueller, M. J., Steffan-Dewenter, I., and Scheiner, R. (2022). Honeybees are buffered against undernourishment during larval stages. Frontiers in Insect Science 2: 951317. https://doi.org/10.3389/finsc.2022.951317 Link
  4. Kunc, M., Dobeš, P., Hurychová, J., Vojtek, L., Poiani, S. B., Danihlík, J., Havlík, J., Titěra, D., and Hyršl, P. (2019). The Year of the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) with Respect to Its Physiology and Immunity: A Search for Biochemical Markers of Longevity. Insects 10(8): 244. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects10080244 Link

Last checked: 20 October 2026. Every statement in this article was compared with the source it cites. Spotted an error? Report it.