It has been shown that when bees are forced to modify their behavior in this fashion they perform less effectively than when they follow a normal sequence of development. Although the pheromones produced by the queen are necessary to maintain the integrity of the hive, worker bees are thought to control the fate of the colony by their activities, such as governing where and how many eggs the queen lays, replacing a failing queen, or ensuring the production of drones. The life span of worker bees is 4 to 6 months in the winter but only 28 to 35 days in the spring and summer. Individual foraging bees readily discriminate between sources and normally retain a high degree of fidelity to a single source. Differences in foraging cues such as color, aroma, and taste are often subtle, but these modalities are handled with ease by the workers' sets of finely tuned receptor cells.
Bees have an excellent sense of direction and time.
Their chronometric powers permit them to emerge from the hive each day at the precise time a certain plant species begins to produce nectar or pollen. They also have an excellent memory, especially for odors. The honey bee eye, like that of many insects, is adapted to perceive rapid movement. This exceptional visual resolution enables bees in flight to discern the complex shapes and broken patterns of objects below, such as colored flowers against a green background. In doing so, a worker can visit as few as 5 or as many as 800 flowers in a single trip.