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After returning from her mating flight, the queen bee has only one task: lay eggs. Up to two thousand a day at the height of summer.

The drones (males) do no work in the hive. They only live for one thing: to mate with a virgin queen, and they will fly out in good weather to look out for any virgin queen. In the autumn they will be thrown out of the hive by the workers and will die.

The worker bees undertake a number of tasks according to their age:

* Days 1 to 3: Cell cleaning and brood incubation. * Days 4 to 6: Feeding older larvae with a mixture of honey and pollen (called 'bee bread'). * Days 7 to 12: Feeding young larvae with royal jelly. This is produced from the hypopharyngeal gland in the bee's head. All larvae are fed with royal jelly for about three days; queen larvae are fed exclusively on royal jelly. * Days 13 to 18: Processing nectar into honey by fanning it with their wings to evaporate water; wax making; packing pollen into cells. * Days 19 to 21: Guarding the hive entrance and taking orientation flights. * Day 21 on for the rest of its life: Foraging for nectar, pollen, water and propolis. Other duties include ventilation, humidity and temperature control of the hive. Bees can also revert to earlier duties if required. Their duties depend on the maturity of their brood glands, wax glands (from day 12) and sting gland (from day 18).

Bees are not always working, they often do nothing!

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16y ago

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