Chapter 3: Understanding Honey Bees and Colony Behaviour
Discover how honey bees live, communicate, reproduce and work together to maintain a healthy colony. Learn to recognise the different bees inside your hive and understand the fascinating behaviour that makes honey bee colonies successful.
Understanding your bees is the foundation of responsible hive management.
Welcome to the Honey Bee Colony
A honey bee colony is far more than a collection of individual insects. It is a highly organised social community in which thousands of bees cooperate to survive, reproduce and maintain their home.
Every bee has a role, from the queen laying eggs to workers collecting nectar and drones participating in reproduction.
By understanding how bees develop, communicate and behave, beekeepers can make better decisions during inspections and recognise when a colony may need attention.
This chapter explains the three types of honey bees, their life cycle, colony communication, comb construction, swarming, seasonal behaviour and signs of a healthy colony.
3.1 β The Three Types of Honey Bees
A typical honey bee colony contains three different types of bees, known as castes: the queen, workers and drones. Each contributes to the colony in a different way.
The Queen Bee
The queen is the main reproductive female of the colony. A healthy queenright colony normally contains one laying queen.
During favourable conditions, a productive queen can lay more than 1,000 eggs daily, sometimes considerably more.
She also produces pheromones that influence colony organisation and behaviour.
Worker Bees
Workers are female bees responsible for almost all daily colony activities.
They clean the hive, feed larvae, build honeycomb, guard the entrance, regulate temperature and collect food and water.
Their responsibilities generally change as they age and as colony needs change.
Drone Bees
Drones are male honey bees whose main biological role is mating with virgin queens.
They are generally larger than worker bees, have prominent eyes and do not possess stingers.
Drone populations usually increase during reproductive seasons and decline when resources become limited.
Worker bees and queens develop from fertilised eggs, while drones normally develop from unfertilised eggs. Nutrition and developmental conditions help determine whether a fertilised female larva becomes a worker or queen.
3.2 β The Honey Bee Life Cycle
Honey bees undergo complete metamorphosis, developing through four stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult.
Stage 1 β Egg
The queen deposits an egg into a prepared honeycomb cell. The egg usually hatches into a larva after approximately three days.
Stage 2 β Larva
Nurse bees feed the developing larva. During this period, the larva grows rapidly and sheds its outer skin several times.
Stage 3 β Pupa
After the cell is capped, the developing bee undergoes major changes as its adult body, wings, legs and other structures form.
Stage 4 β Adult Bee
Once development is complete, the adult bee chews through the cell capping and emerges into the colony.
Typical Development Times
| Bee Type | Egg | Larval / Pupal Period | Total Development |
|---|---|---|---|
| Queen | 3 days | About 13 days | About 16 days |
| Worker | 3 days | About 18 days | About 21 days |
| Drone | 3 days | About 21 days | About 24 days |
Approximate development times for honey bees; actual timing can vary.
During a hive inspection, look for eggs, larvae and capped brood. Finding brood at different stages can help you understand whether the colony has had recent egg-laying activity.
3.3 β How Honey Bees Communicate
Honey bees communicate using movement, chemical signals, touch and vibrations. These methods help coordinate activities among thousands of colony members.
The Waggle Dance
When a foraging bee discovers a valuable food source, she may perform a waggle dance inside the hive.
The dance communicates information about the direction and approximate distance of the food source relative to the sun's position.
Pheromones
Pheromones are chemical signals that influence colony behaviour.
Queen pheromones help regulate colony organisation, while alarm pheromones can alert other bees to potential threats.
How Bees Recognise Their Hive
Honey bees use visual landmarks, sunlight, odours and other environmental information to navigate between their hive and surrounding food sources.
Worker bees also use colony-specific odour cues to help recognise nestmates.
Honey bees can learn and remember locations of profitable food sources. Experienced foragers may return repeatedly to productive flowering areas.
3.4 β Inside the Honeycomb
Honeycomb is built from beeswax secreted by worker bees. It consists of thousands of closely packed, approximately hexagonal cells used for raising brood and storing food.
