The Hive is a Superorganism

What makes honeybees more daunting or foreign than raising chickens or starting a garden? Sure, they sting. And they can’t communicate with you. Oh and you don’t begin with just a couple of honeybees to start; you sign up for 10,000 - yes I said 10,000 - from Day 1 whether you’re comfortable or not. Ten thousand individuals that work together to make the hive a functional and productive superorganism.

It’s like in biology class learning about the different cells that make up tissue that forms organs and ultimately an organism. The human organism can function properly if it’s pancreas is producing a specific hormone, like insulin, which is due to the individual cells interpreting and responding to the need of the whole. This, too, is true of the honey bee superorganism. 

The hive made up of various types of bees who have unique jobs that serve the good of the whole; even the queen bee must fulfill her requirements for the colony. If each does not play the proper part, the superorganism will fail. To ensure the good health of the hive we must understand the part each individual plays.

Queen

There is only one queen in a colony. Her sole purpose is to mate with drones and lay eggs in the cells of the comb. She can produce up to 2,000 eggs per day, laying one egg in each cell that’s tended to by the other bees while they develop into larvae, pupae, and then adult honeybees. Depending on whether she lays fertilized or unfertilized eggs the larvae will develop into female and male bees, respectively. Furthermore, fertilized female larvae can develop into queen or worker bees depending on what concentration of sugar the workers feed them in their larval stage.

In the first days as larvae, they are fed a high-protein substance called Royal Jelly. Workers will feed the larvae Royal Jelly when they’re in need of a new queen. This can indicate the current queen is old or injured, or a swarm will occur in the near future. Swarming is when a queen relocates and takes about 60% of her bees with her. When it’s decided a new queen is needed, bees will feed several cells Royal Jelly to be sure there’s a successful successor. Sixteen days after eggs are laid, queen pupae will emerge as new bees. The first queen bee to emerge from her cell will be the dominant queen and will make this known with a “piping” noise to alert the other potential queen bees; the others who have lost the race will respond with a “quacking” noise.

An adult queen bee can live 3 to 7 years where she spends her time communicating with her domain via pheromones, mating with drones, and laying eggs.

Drone

After unfertilized eggs are laid in the comb, eggs hatch on the 3rd or 4th day and larvae are fed Brood Food (as opposed to Royal Jelly). On day 8 or 9 larvae are enclosed in their cell (capped) and form a chrysalis. On day 24 they emerge as large-eyed, large-bodied drone bees.

There are about 200 drones at one time per colony. All drones developed from unfertilized eggs, are all males, and their sole purpose is to mate with the queen. They mate once, have their genitals ripped from their bodies, and immediately die. Wow, what a life. The females of the colony have a more complex workload as you’ll see below. Isn’t this also true with humans?

There are plenty found during the warm months, but even the bees know...Winter Is Coming. In order to conserve their resources for the colder months they evict the drones and leave them to their own devices. And what do they do, exactly? Nothing. Unfortunately, they will die. Who knows, they might prefer this death to one where they lose their genitals.

Worker

Workers are all females (let’s be honest, who’s surprised?). Worker bees begin as fertilized eggs, and develop as larvae feeding on the same Royal Jelly that queens get, but in less quantity. Larvae are capped, develop into pupae, and 21 days emerge ready to start cleaning, feeding, organizing, and flying. Their occupations change as they age, based in part on their anatomy and biology.

Day 0-3: Worker begins grooming herself and soliciting food from other workers.

Day 4: She begins to find her own food, pollen or honey stored in the cells. She spends this time eating, growing strength, and cleaning used cells.

Day 5: Older larvae are fed regurgitated honey or pollen stores by the worker (called a nurse bee at this stage). Her body hasn’t developed the glands to convert pollen to brood food, which is vital for young larvae to develop. This develops in the next days…

Day 6: The hypopharyngeal gland has developed, which now allows the worker nurse bee to feed young larvae brood food.

Day 10-18: Hypopharyngeal gland is worn out, but another gland develops: the one that produces wax. She is now able to build and repair the comb. In addition to this useful stage in her life, she now defecates for the first time and gets her wings ready for her first flight. An interesting point we learned: bees will not defecate inside the hive if they can help it. I think all of us can take solace in learning that honey is bee-poop-free! 

Day 12+: Bees will take their time turning into foragers and learn from the masters. They observe experienced foragers’ communication dances to learn where they’re travelling to for nectar and pollen. They also collect the goods from the master foragers and relay it to the honey storage combs. Most worker bees will turn into foragers. A small number become guard bees.

Day 21-28: Foraging begins for the young adult worker bees. They take reconnaissance flights where they slowly travel further and further from the hive as they get comfortable flying for the first time.

Worker bees who forage work significantly harder during the warm months of spring and summer and subsequently shorten their lifespan; they may live up to 6 weeks. Weeks. In contrast, bees that are born at the end of the summer and spend most of their life during the cold winter are lucky to live up to 6 months.

Each bee plays a vital role in the success of the whole colony. Some focus on mating and keeping the population steady, some focus on security, and others on cleaning and feeding. The perfect balance they’ve created can be upset by an old queen who is failing to lay fertilized eggs, foreign bees robbing the honey, or mites or other pests. It’s important to know the role of the bees so we can recognize when something abnormal or harmful is occurring.