Brightwell Bees

Nearly all the bees in the colony are worker bees, and they are all daughters of the single queen bee who heads the colony. In summer, the worker will live for only about six weeks.

Honey bees are such successful social insects as they practice division of labour.

The young bee starts her working life cleaning the hive and caring for her younger sisters, who are still larvae. It is important for her to remain in the hive, as she is still soft bodied, and cannot yet fly well.

When she is a little older, she makes wax cells – this is undertaken in teams, as the temperature around the wax building needs to be quite high at 33-35°C.

Only when she is about three weeks old does she leave the hive to forage.

A young worker bee tending to larvae

Teams of bees building beeswax honeycomb

Honey bees forage on a succession of flowers, during every month of the year - see photos below

Copyright © Viv and Steve Moll Brightwell Bees 2009 - 2011