The management and study of bees.

The queen bee

The worker bees

Drones

She is the largest bee

She is the only fertile female in the hive
She has a long abdomen
She can sting repeatedly because her sting is
smooth
A queen egg takes 15 days to develop into
adult
As a larva, she is fed a protein rich food called
Royal Jelly

After newly hatched , she leaves the hive for her

nuptial flight, at about 1 week old

She mates with one or more drones

She lays fertilized eggs which can develop into

queens or worker depending on the feed they
get. Unfertilized eggs develop into drones

Her natural life span is 3 to 4 years

Her economic life span is 2 years

Workers are the sterile females developed

from larvae which were feed with bee
bread

They are the smallest of bees

Workers emerge after 21 days from fertilized

eggs. Their natural life span is 6 weeks ( 3
weeks in the hive and 3 weeks foraging)

Workers are well equipped for their functions.

They have :
Pollen baskets in their hind legs

A straight barbed sting to defend the colony

Wax-secreting glands on the underside of the

abdomen

Numerous hairs to carry pollen grains

Drones are all male bees

They are all fertile

In size they are between the queen

and the worker

They have no stings

They have two large compound eyes

They have a blunt abdomen

It takes 24 days to complete their

life cycle

The drones life span is 2 months