Queen, drones and worker bees: roles and tasks in the beehive

In the structured hierarchy of bees, each individual has a specific task. At the top of the hierarchy we can find the queen bee which is the only one able to lay eggs. Her fecundation takes place during the mating flight in which she couples with 5-16 males: the female gets up in flight at 5-15 metres and the drones (the males) can find her thanks to a pheromone in specific meeting points distant from the hive from 3 to 16 km. Drones have no stinger and their main purpose is the fecundation of the queen, after which they die, and maintaining the temperature of the swarm. Finally, there are worker bees, sterile females with the task to provide the sustenance of the hive. Roles of worker bees change depending on their age: initially, during the first three days of life, they clean the hive, from the third to the tenth day they are committed to feeding drones larvae and the queen bee. From the tenth day they start taking care of the hive: construction, conservation of food and protection of the family as guardians. Starting from the 21st day to their last day of life, 42nd, worker bees deal with their last task, that is looking for food and collecting the pollen.