Ahealthy honeybee hive functions as a polished and well-oiled machine, thanks to tens of thousands of bees, each performing their jobs dutifully. The life of a honeybee is all work and very little play: From the moment it emerges out of its hatching cell to the moment of its last breath, a honeybee is working. Functioning as a unit, bees produce a workforce capable of pollinating thousands of acres of flowering plants, producing upwards of 100 pounds of honey per year and continuously rearing more bees to replace those lost throughout the season. When you understand just how hard honeybees work, the phrase “busy as a bee” begins to take on new meaning.
Without doubt, the female worker bees in a honeybee colony comprise the largest population (about 50,000 female workers to about 500 male drones) and are arguably the hardest working (aside from the queen, of course). As an individual bee grows older, its age dictates its role in the hive. Most female bees will work in each of the roles listed below at one point their lifetimes, beginning with nursing — an occupation that is taken on by newly hatched bees — and ending with foraging, which is a task reserved for the oldest bees only.