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The Bee Colony
The bees in a honeybee nest are called a colony They are not just a group of individuals living in the same place, acting independently. They are a highly organized society. First, no bee does all the tasks necessary to life in the colony. In fact there are three different kinds of bees and each kind does something important, not done by the others. The queen bee lays all the eggs in the colony. There are about one thousand male drone bees. They mate with the queen bee. There are thousands of female worker that feed the queen and the drones, raises young bees and do all the other work in the hive. The female workers normally do not lay eggs. This performance of different tasks is called "Division of Labor". Division of labor makes running the colony more efficient. It also makes the bees dependent on each other for survival. A single honeybee cannot live on its own.
In addition to division of labor, there is also cooperation in the honeybee colony. Many bees cooperate in doing tasks which could never be done by one bee alone. For example, the workers cooperate in building the nest and in keeping the nest at the proper temperature at all times.
Acknowledgements
The Bees section was created with special thanks to Louis Juers (Arizona State Parks & Trails) for providing information used in this section. Additional information and digital materials were obtained from some of the following organizations. We would like to thank them for all their dedication and hard work within their profession.
The bees in a honeybee nest are called a colony They are not just a group of individuals living in the same place, acting independently. They are a highly organized society. First, no bee does all the tasks necessary to life in the colony. In fact there are three different kinds of bees and each kind does something important, not done by the others. The queen bee lays all the eggs in the colony. There are about one thousand male drone bees. They mate with the queen bee. There are thousands of female worker that feed the queen and the drones, raises young bees and do all the other work in the hive. The female workers normally do not lay eggs. This performance of different tasks is called "Division of Labor". Division of labor makes running the colony more efficient. It also makes the bees dependent on each other for survival. A single honeybee cannot live on its own.
