Drones   The drones are the male honey bees in the hive. They can easily be identified because they are fatter than the worker bees. The drones have only one function and that is to fertilize the queen. This is only done after a new queen is born, at which time the drones accompany her outside of the hive for a mating flight. Each autumn, when the drones are eating too much of the winter store of honey, and are not needed for fertilization, the worker bees may opt to throw them out of the hive alive.

The Queen   The queen is the only fertilized female honey bee in the hive. She is longer than all the other bees, has a shiny black head and thorax, with a point for a tail out of which she lays her eggs. If a new queen is to be born, the worker bees feed royal jelly to the unborn female larvae, which are then born as queens, and the first one out or the strongest one kills the others, and then she goes on a mating flight with some drones. Once the queen returns to the hive, she never leaves again. She can lay as many as 2000 eggs a day, and she doesn't even feed herself. Instead, the worker bees feed her, protect her, and keep her warm. They will make a ring around the queen all pointing inward in order to do their job.

Fanning   The honey bee hive can be a very warm home for the bees. As the worker bees fly in to deposit nectar and pollen into the cells which they have gathered from the flowers, or as they make honey, guard the hive, clean it, and do all the other required tasks, their busyness builds up heat within. If the temperature becomes too great, some bees will begin to fan. They line up in the bottom of the hive, all facing the same direction, at which time they use their wings in an attempt to cool down the temperature.

Visit our honey house or take a look at our observation beehive.