The Life of Worker Bees
Worker bees are underdeveloped female bees in the colony.
The function of the worker bees is to take care of all the work inside and outside the nest, and with different ages, there are different divisions of labor.
When they hatch out of the house, they are pale in color, unable to fly and can’t perform other tasks. They are called larvae.
The 1-3 day-old larvae are responsible for keeping warm and cleaning the nest, and the 4-5 day-old larvae are responsible for feeding. Feeding large larvae, the royal jelly glands of 4-12 days old worker bees mature and are responsible for secreting royal jelly to feed small larvae, 13-18 days old worker beeswax glands are developed and responsible for secreting beeswax to make spleen, brew nectar, clear the nest, and transport bees For corpses and guarding the hive, worker bees after 18 days of age are mainly responsible for collecting nectar, pollen, gum, and water until they die. Worker bees can live for 30-45 days during the nectar flow period, and can live for about half a year during the wintering period in the north.
Unlike the worker bees, the drone has no working instinct. It mates with the virgin queen full-time. Most drones begin to fly at 7-10 days old. Sexual mating at the age of 12 days usually takes place at 1-5 pm on a sunny day, and they die shortly after mating. Although the life span of the drone can be up to 3-4 months, the drone will be expelled from the nest and starve to death after the end of the nectar period at the end of the fall due to a large amount of food.
