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| Worker bees everywhere! (Can you spot the queen?) |
The worker bees are the smallest
and most abundant in the honey bee colony. They are all females but unlike the
Queen bee they are unable to reproduce. Their population in a single hive can
reach up to 60,000 depending on the size of the hive. In the winter months,
which are the less active months in the hive, they are capable of living from 4
to 9 months. Their main priority is to keep the hive at a constant 90 to 95
degrees Fahrenheit by densely packing themselves together in one spot, this is
known as clustering. When they do cluster in the winter months, they will do so
around the queen since she is the most important in the hive. An interesting
fact about honey bees is that they are house trained. Therefore they will not excrete
waste inside the hive. So during the winter months they will hold the longing
desire until a sunny day arrives in early spring and then they all sprint out
the door.
Worker bees are the only caste of
honey bees that have a stinger. Fortunately, they are not aggressive by nature
so they only sting as a last resort to protect their hive. However once she
stings the threat she will die soon after. For this reason the worker bee will first
hover around and bump what she perceives as a threat to the hive. This is their
way of giving a warning. Once they have shown the threat a warning they will
attack as a last resort. Soon after she
will die but not until looking at her stinger pulse toxins into the menace!
Birth
to Adolescent
A worker bee starts off as an egg. The
egg is so small it is easy to miss. It takes an average of 21 days for an egg
to change into a full adult bee. It all begins with the queen bee laying an egg
at the center of a wax cell. After the third day the egg hatches into a larva.
In the third to sixth day of the metamorphosis, the larva is fed by the worker
bees royal jelly. However this royal jelly is not as pure as what the queen
usually consumes. It’s more “watered down.” After the sixth day they are no
longer fed royal jelly. From there on they are fed a combination of honey and
pollen. This is known as bee bread. On the ninth day the larva is now
considered fully grown.
When the larva reaches maturity the
worker bees will seal in the larva in the wax cell with a layer of wax and
pollen. In this sealed cell the larva will finish her transformation into an
adult bee. When the cell is first sealed it is a light yellow color. Over the next couple of days the color of the
cell will change into a darker color, close to brown. This change in color
signifies that the adult bee is almost ready to emerge from its cell. On the 21st
day, the adult bee emerges from its sealed comb by chewing thought it. She will
now join her mother, sisters and brothers. She will begin to work almost immediately.
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Stay tuned for the next post about the Worker Bees adulthood. It will astonish you, at least it did me, that the worker bees task as an adult intertwine with one another which helps the hive survive. meaning that without one task there can not be another one.
Written by Dulay
