The Female Hierarchy of Honeybees

Honeybees are common insects. We all know they collect nectar and bring it back to their hives, but the social hierarchy within a bee colony is fascinating and worth closer study. A typical colony contains several thousand to tens of thousands of bees. Apart from a single queen and a small number of drones, the rest are worker bees. Drones are male, while both the queen and workers are female. The queen is the only bee in the colony capable of normal reproduction. Drones hatch from unfertilized eggs, while workers and queens hatch from fertilized eggs.

In addition to building hexagonal cells, workers also construct larger special cells called queen cells, used to raise new queens. When a female larva is fed royal jelly continuously, the rich nutrition allows it to develop into a queen. If the female larva is fed honey instead—either partially or entirely—it develops into a worker, with underdeveloped reproductive organs. If multiple queens are raised at the same time, the first to emerge will kill the others still developing. If several queens emerge simultaneously, they fight until only one survives to become the colony’s queen. The queen’s primary role is reproduction. She mates with multiple drones and lays either fertilized or unfertilized eggs. Unfertilized eggs produce drones, while fertilized eggs can develop into either workers or queens depending on how they are raised. The queen also maintains colony order, preventing workers from building queen cells. Royal jelly, provided exclusively by workers, is the queen’s only food.

Female larvae that do not receive continuous royal jelly develop into workers. Newly emerged workers care for and feed larvae inside the hive. Later, their wax glands begin producing wax, which they use to build comb. At this stage, workers construct cells, clean the hive, and remove dead bees. Once their wax glands stop producing, they transition to foraging—collecting nectar and bringing it back to the hive, serving as the colony’s food suppliers.

Drones, hatched from unfertilized eggs, do no work. Their sole role is to mate with the queen, after which they die. Interestingly, due to inbreeding, queens sometimes produce fertilized eggs that develop abnormally into male bees. These drones cannot mate and have low survival rates. Colonies eliminate them at the larval stage to protect the group’s survival. A queen typically lives one to two years. As she ages, workers begin raising new queens. Before a new queen emerges, the old queen may leave the hive with part of the colony, while the new queen takes over. If multiple queens compete, battles decide the victor. If a queen can only produce drones and no females due to mating issues, workers will overthrow her and replace her with a new queen to prevent extinction.

If a queen dies unexpectedly or for other reasons the colony loses its queen, the hive becomes restless. Workers urgently build queen cells to raise a replacement. If they fail, workers begin laying eggs themselves. Since workers cannot mate, they can only produce drones, which does not sustain the colony. If queenlessness continues, the colony eventually collapses, because only a queen can produce females. Worker egg-laying is abnormal and represents a desperate but ineffective attempt at survival.

In bee society, protection of the colony is also the responsibility of workers. Unlike many other species where males dominate, in bees the queen is female, workers are female, and males hold low status—serving only to mate before dying.