Queen Drones Workers Brood Bee Development Figure 1.
Honey bees are social insects.
A honey bee colony typically consists of several thousand bees that cooperate in nest building, food collection, and brood rearing. Fach member has a definite task to perform, but it takes the combined efforts of the entire colony to survive and reproduce. A colony normally has a single queen, fifty to sixty thousand workers at its peak, and several hundred drones during late spring and summer. Individual queens, workers, and drones cannot survive by themselves. The social structure of the colony is maintained by the queen and workers and depends on an effective system of communication.