|
|
|
|
|
Honey bees are social insects, and each kind of bee has a special job in the hive. A colony of honey bees includes a queen, drones and workers.
The Queen
The queen is the only bee in the hive who can lay eggs. She is the largest bee in the colony.
A two-day-old larva is chosen by the workers to be reared as the queen. She will come out from her cell 11 days later to mate with about 18 drone (male) bees while she is flying in the air. During this mating, she receives several million sperm cells, which last her entire life span of nearly two years.
The queen starts to lay eggs about 10 days after mating. She can lay 3,000 eggs in a single day!