The bees live together in a hive and depend on each other for survival. Such a hive houses a total of no less than 50,000 to 70,000 bees, and this is what is called a “bee community”.

Inside the hive each bee has its own tasks and responsibilities:the queen lays the eggs, the drones mate with the queen and the worker bees do practically all the rest. In summer a bee community consists of 1 queen, 500 to 900 male drones and between 50,000 and 70,000 worker bees.

 

The queen is the mother of all bees.  She lives the longest: 2 to 5 years. In summer she lays eggs every day, sometimes up to 1600, so that new bees can always be born to replace the dead ones. The queen does not lay eggs in winter.

 

The drones mate with the queen and do nothing else. They even need worker bees to eat pollen.  At the end of summer, when the bees need all their food to survive, the drones are driven from the hive and die of hunger.

 

 

 

The worker bees only live 6 weeks in summer. In the winter period they live a bit longer: 4 to 5 months. They have to work less in this period.

 

During their short life in summer a worker bee does all kinds of tasks. Immediately after her birth she starts licking the cells clean.  She then has to feed her newly born sisters and brothers for a couple of days.  She does this with honey and pollen collected and inserted into the cells by other worker bees.  She builds these cells herself with wax secreted from her body. In the mean time our worker bee also assists in cooling down the hive on hot days.  She does this by flapping her wings at a rate of 183 times a second.
Three weeks, half of her life, has passed by this time and then she may go outside for the first time,  to keep guard at the entrance of the hive, so that no strange bees or other insects can enter to steal the honey. 

She finally has to fly around for about 3 weeks in search of flowers.  She makes about 10 flights a day of 15 to 30 minutes and then spends the same amount of time in the hive to deliver the honey. She does not only collect nectar from flowers, but also supplies water, pollen and propolis.  After six weeks she dies of exhaustion.

 

 

  

In winter (between September and March) there is hardly any work in the hive and the worker bee lives longer: up to 4 to 5 months. During this period she only has to keep the queen warm. The number of worker bees drops from 50,000 to 20,000.

And what about the drones? They were driven from the hive and have died of hunger.

 

  

Skep hive & frame hive  The skep hive is made of straw and has a round shape.  

The frame hive is made of wood and is square. Nowadays we do not use skep hives any more, but only frame hives.

However, most people simply use the term “hive” or “beehive”, regardless of the type.