Let's explore the major differences between queen and worker bees and why this hierarchical system is crucial to hive ...

Worker bees generally have the same mother but different fathers, since the queen mates with multiple male bees. This means that the worker bees share more of their mother’s genes with each other.

If the queen bee dies, the workers can lay unfertilized eggs that become female bees instead of male bees. Thanks to a quirk in the cape honey bees’ egg-making process, the egg cell contains two ...

The face of a sweat bee (Megalopta amoena) that is half female (viewer's left, bee's right) and half male (viewer's right, bee's left) Chelsey Ritner / Utah State University In the spring of 2018 ...

Worker bees make up most of the hive. They are all female, unable to reproduce, and are tasked with overseeing the colony. Worker bees collect nectar and pollen, protect the hive against intruders ...

Female worker bees do pretty much all the work. The isolated queen. Maybe you imagine a queen as the one in charge, ordering everyone around. But that’s a case of language being misleading.

Male bees, otherwise known as drones, are on the sidelines here with their only job being to reproduce with the female queen bee. Queen bees and worker bees, on the other hand, are the star ...