The three types of honey bees pictured to the left are the types of honey bees that can be found in a hive. The number of honey bees per hive may vary, but it is usually in the neighborhood of 20,000-100,000 bees per hive. In every hive there is; 1 queen; 0-3,000 drones and 20,000-100,000 worker bees. Each type of bee plays a different role than the other in the hive. The queen bee's jobs are to mate with drones, produce eggs, and maintain order in the hive. A queen bee can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day, either fertilized or unfertilized. Fertilized eggs become worker bees and unfertilized eggs become drones. The drones', the male bees, only job is to mate with the queen. Instead of having a stinger like the worker bees, the drone has a removable sex organ called an endophallus. The endophallus is the equivalent of a penis. Once a drone has finished mating with the queen, it falls back, the endophallus breaks off, and the drone dies. Since the queen has sex with many drones throughout her lifespan, a drone who wishes to have sex with the queen must remove the endophallus of the drone who had sex before him before he can insert his own endophallus into the queen.
The worker bee is the workhorse of the hive. The fact that worker bees are all sterile and female makes them the best candidate for work since they cannot mate with the queen nor can they reproduce. They take on a variety of jobs including: making comb; taking care of larvae, young drones, and the queen; cleaning the hive; gathering nectar, pollen, and propolis; and most importantly, defending the hive. Since worker bees do most of the work in the hive, it's only natural that they have the shortest lifespan out of the three types of honey bee. A queen can live anywhere between 2-5 years while a drone can live between 21-90 days. The average worker bee can live for 4-9 months, but will live less than 6 weeks during the summer months of June, July, and August. These months are the most productive months out of the year for honey bee activities like pollination, reproduction, and honey production. The worker bees will literally work themselves to death during this time. Their lifespan can also be as short as 21 days: That's how long it takes for a worker bee to hatch from an egg. Unlike the queen and drone, a worker bee does have a stinger, which they will use to defend themselves and their hive. Once a worker bee loses its stinger, it dies.