THE WONDROUS WORLD OF HONEYBEES

• A honeybee a tiny insects represent a highly organized system of division of labour, as distinct members of the colony.
• A honeybee colony comprises distinct members that exhibit an astounding division of labour among them. These busy, social insects provide us honey --- the sweet, health- promoting gift of nature.
• Basically , there are three distinct castes found in a colony. In a  normal beehive, there is one queen(Functional female), 10000 to 20000 workers(sterile females) and few hundred drones(males).

                                                           

• The queen comes out of the hive only once in her lifetime for just 10-15 minutes . It can mate with one or more males. After mating , the male genital organ gets attached to the female genital organ, and eventually the drone dies. 
• During mating the queen stores about two crore spermatozoa in her spermatheca where they can survive for over three years.
• Female are produced from fertilized eggs while the unfertillized ones produce males.
• A queen can lay up to 15,000 eggs per day and can live for three years.
• The drones are heavily built as compared to the workers and queen. Their only function is to mate with the queen. 
• There is no wax gland, scent gland or sting apparatus in a drone. They are dependent on workers for food.
• About 3-6 workers are required to feed a single drone. Their life span is 57 days.
• At the termination of breeding season and before the onset of monsoon, drones are driven out of the hive to die of starvation or move to neighbouring nests that have virgin queens.
• Workers(females) are actually rsponsible for the welfare and maintenance of the colony. They possess a proboscis or tongue for collection of nectar and a pollen basket in their hind leg for collecting pollen.
• There is divisio of labour among the workers also.