There are three types of bees in the hive:

Queen, Workers, and Drones

 

The Queen:

 

* Will live normally between 1 and 4 years.

* Consumes royal jelly provided by the workers

* Has a non-barbed stinger

* Without a queen, the colony will eventually die

* Develops in 16 days, from egg to emergence from the queen cell.

 

The Workers:

 

* Worker are all females.

* Can number between 40-60,000 in a strong hive.

* Performs a multitude of tasks to include: Tending to the queen, feeding larvae, feeding 

   drones, nectar ripening, producing heat, collecting water, house cleaning guard duty,

   field collection of pollen and nectar, to list a few.

* Will die if she stings. Has a barbed stinger that if left behind after stinging.

* Will live 6-8 weeks in the summer, working until her wings give out.

* Will live 4-6 months in winter when not actively working/foraging.

* Develops in 21 days from egg to emergence.

 

The Drones:

 

* Sole responsibility is fertilization.

* Leaves hive for 2-3 hours each day.

* Has no stinger

* If the workers stopped feeding them, they would die of starvation.

* Develops in 24 days from egg to hatching to emergence.