Bees are social insects and individual bees cannot survive alone. The entire bee colony is composed of three different types of individuals, namely the queen bee, the drone and the worker bee. A colony of bees has only one queen bee. During the breeding season, there are hundreds of drones. Worker bees are the most numerous members of the colony, reaching 20,000 to 50,000. The queen bee and worker bees are female, while the male bees are male, so bees are a typical female society. Bees have a complete social division of labor structure. The queen bee is dedicated to laying eggs, while the male bee is responsible for mating with the virgin queen and does no other work. In the colony, except for reproduction, all the work inside and outside the hive is handled by worker bees.
The queen bee is a fully developed female bee in the colony. Her reproductive organs are fully developed. In the colony, she is like an egg-laying machine. When the colony is in its peak reproductive period, she can lay about one to two eggs per minute, and more than 1,500 to 2,000 eggs in a day. The total weight of the eggs she lays is even greater than that of the queen bee. Such a vigorous egg-laying capacity This is attributed to its own special structure and the continuous supply of royal jelly by worker bees. During egg-laying, the queen bee's abdomen is elongated and plump, longer than that of worker bees, even twice as long. The strength of egg-laying ability is related to the prosperity or decline of bee colonies. Only strains with excellent genetic traits can enhance the productivity of bee colonies. The selection of superior queen bees is the constant pursuit of beekeepers.
The queen bee is the leader of the colony, and there is always a group of guards around her to protect the safety of the queen bee and clean her body surface.
Male bees have a strong build, with highly developed compound eyes. Their heads are almost entirely occupied by compound eyes. The tail end of their abdomens is slightly round. They have no stingers but well-developed mating organs. It has extremely strong flying ability and can chase the virgin queen bee in the vast sky and mate with her. Male bees develop from unfertilized eggs and have a single set of chromosomes, which directly affect the genetic traits of their offspring and are related to the prosperity and decline of the bee colony as well as the harvest of beekeepers. During the breeding period, bee colonies produce a large number of drones to facilitate the spread and reproduction of the colonies.
The hind tibia of a male bee
does not have a pollen basket
A cross-sectional view of a male bee's hive
Although a bee colony is divided into three classes, all the work both inside and outside the nest is carried out by worker bees. When we observe a bee colony, we will find that each worker bee is quite busy at work, seemingly disorganized and disorderly, but in fact, each individual is performing its own duties in an orderly manner. The division of labor among worker bees is based on their age and can be divided into house bees and field bees.
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