Page 30 - The Miracle of the Honeybee

28 THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

THE WORKERS: THE HIVE’S MOST INDUSTRIOUS
MEMBERS

Worker bees in the hive are most important in ensuring order and that
the work in the hive is performed without anything going wrong. Due to
the large numbers of bees in the hive, a lot of work needs to be done. Like
the queen, all the workers are female. As soon as they emerge from their
cells, they set to work. The worker bees are responsible for much of this
such as caring for the young, cleaning, feeding, food-gathering and stor-
age of honey and pollen. Before considering the tasks of the worker bees
in detail, we may set out their tasks in the following broad categories:
1. Cleaning the hive
2. Caring for the larvae and the young
3. Feeding the queen and the drones
4. Making honey
5. Building and maintaining the combs
6. Hive ventilation
7. Hive security
8. Gathering and storing such substances as nectar, pollen, water and
resin.
Order inside the hive, with its tens of thousands of bees, is ensured by
every individual carrying out its duties to the full. But what kind of order
is there within the hive? How are the tasks distributed and defined?
The German scientist Gustav Rosch sought answers to these questions.
As a result of his experiment, he concluded that the tasks assumed by the
workers in the hive depends on their age. According to these results,

worker bees take on completely different roles during their first three
14
weeks of life. These periods can be divided up as follows:
- First period: Days 1 and 2
- Second period: Days 3 through 9
- Third period: Days 10 through 16
- Fourth period: Days 17 through 20
- Fifth period: Day 21 and after.