Beekeeping for Beginners: A Starter Guide Book on the Basics to Keeping Bees & Harvesting Honey by Jamie Stevens

Author:Jamie Stevens [Stevens, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science & Math, Agricultural Sciences, Animal Husbandry, Biological Sciences, Animals, Insects & Spiders, Professional & Technical, Professional Science
Amazon: B00KKR5PEY
Published: 2014-05-25T04:00:00+00:00

Drones

Drones

They are larger than workers, with especially large heads. They do no work, but eat around three times the food of a worker, so too many drones may deplete the food supply of the colony. They are usually only found in late spring and summer – as the weather gets colder they are forced out of the hive by the workers and eventually starve.

Queen bee (middle)

The Queen

She can be identified because she is larger than the other bees, with a much larger abdomen, especially during the egg-laying season. Her wings do not reach the end of the abdomen as they do in workers or drones, but stop about two-thirds of the way down.

A queen lays eggs from spring to fall, but lays few eggs in winter. She may lay 250,000 eggs in a season. Although a queen may live for five years, most usually live two or three years. A very important function of the queen is to produce pheromones – scents – that keep the social structure of the colony together. The most important of these is called queen substance.

Pheromones are vital in the life of the colony, and all the different castes of bees (workers, drones, queens) produce a whole range of them to control many of their activities.

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