Caste System of the Honey Bee
The honey bee hive is an highly structured environment, in which each bee has her place. What job she performs and at what time in life is not up for discussion, the hive survives because each individual does what she knows she must do. Everything is for the hive.
Queen Bee
The hive has only one queen and her sole responsibility is to lay eggs. As spring weather warms and the hive goes back into action, she may lay up to 2000 eggs a day. The queen can live 3 – 5 years and will never leave the hive, save for the few trips she makes as a “virgin queen”. It is during her virgin flight(s) where she mates with drones (10 - 15) and will be fertile for the rest of her life.
When the queen dies or become unproductive, or the hive is crowded and they decide to “swarm”, the hive will “create” a new queen. Special cells are created, called “queen cups” and the larvae are fed royal jelly exclusively. This exclusive feeding of royal jelly and the larger queen cell, these are the only differences between a female bee that becomes a queen and one that is born a worker. Amazing!
Worker Bees
All worker bees are female, but they are not able to reproduce. These little girls do all of the work in the hive: they clean, feed, build comb, regulate the internal temperature, guard the hive, care for the queen, forage and make honey, etc. The worker’s life is carefully planned out; of the 6 weeks she will live, the first three are spent inside the hive, where she is a “house bee” (also called a “nurse bee”). The last 21 days she will spend her entire day foraging for nectar and pollen. These little bees work until they die…I have found dead bees just outside the hive, loaded with pollen from the field, but they just didn’t have any more to give. The colony can have 20,000 – 30,000 bees, nearly all of which are workers.
The worker bee has a barbed stinger, unlike the queen's, which is smooth. The result of a worker's sting is her death, as the barbs do not withdraw easily and the lower part of her abdomen is ripped off with the stinger.
Drones
Male honey bees are known as drones. Their only task is to mate with virgin queens, usually from colonies other than their own. The drones leave each day and congregate with other drones, waiting to mate with a virgin queen. They are larger than workers and are easily identified by their large eyes, which help them spot flying queens. Colonies may contain a few to several hundred drones, depending on the strength of the colony and the time of year. Once the flow of nectar has subsided (late summer, early autumn), the drones will be forced out of the colony in order to save the hive's winter stores.
Hive
The Warre Hive (also known as the People’s Hive) was developed in France by Emile Warré (1876?-1951). Emil Warré’s careful research resulted in a hive that promotes the well being of bee colonies. His design maximizes warmth and scent retention, and promotes good ventilation. It is easily adapted for winterization, and optimizes hygienic conditions for the bees. This supports the bees in their work by minimizing temperature and humidity fluctuation helping them maintain the constant conditions needed for the care of the developing young.
The modern Warré hive has no frames, but uses movable top bars. This allows bees to build comb in the shape and form that is natural to them. The boxes are small for warmth regulation, with inner dimensions 12” x 12”. They are added at the bottom in the spring to allow the colony to expand with the nectar flow, as is their nature in the wild. (from GardenHives.com - for more info or to purchase a Warrè hive, please visit their site)
