Wrapped winter honey bee hives in the Yukon

THE WORKER BEE

Even at this time of year, when there is no nectar and pollen to collect, a worker bee's job is still not done. A winter worker is in charge of climate control in the hive and maintaining that hungry queen. A winter worker may live up to six times longer than her summer counterpart, whose expected lifespan is approximately six weeks.

The worker bee is probably the most recognizable honey bee in the bee hive.

Worker bee checking out the smoker

Most people are familiar with her distinguishable black and orange stripes as she goes about the business of collecting pollen and nectar for her hive. Inadvertently, she is also performing one of the most important jobs on earth, she is pollinating.

Yes, I am using ‘she,’ ALL worker bees are female.

Let’s have a closer look at the amazing worker bee.

LIFECYCLE

Our worker bee starts out her life as a fertilized egg, laid in a sterilized cell by the Queen Bee herself. In three days the egg hatches into a larva. A worker bee larva is fed Royal Jelly by a nurse bee (also a worker) for the first three days. Royal Jelly (the food of the Queen Bee) is high in protein, vitamins and minerals. This gives the larva a kick start to grow and develop.

After the third day, her diet will consist of Bee Bread, which is a combination of honey and pollen. This continues until the ninth day, when a nurse bee will cap the cell by placing wax over the opening. Our worker bee larva will continue through her pupa stage all by herself.

Hatching worker bee (top right)

At 21 days, she chews her way through the capping and emerges as a full grown adult. She is afforded a small amount of time to get her ‘hive legs,’ her stripes and her eyes will finish developing. Then she has to live up to her name ... after all, she is a worker bee.

FIRST THREE WEEKS AS A WORKER BEE

From the moment she emerges from her wax cell, she is known as a house bee. Her duties are numerous, and she is automatically equipped to handle them all. The following is a house bee’s ‘to do list.’

·      Housekeeping Bee – this includes cleaning and polishing brood cells (where the Queen Bee lays eggs) as well as honey comb (where honey will be deposited).

·      Queen Bee Attendant – this is an important job, as there is only one queen bee, and keeping her healthy so she can produce more honey bees ensures the survival of the whole hive – duties include feeding, grooming and temperature control for the queen.

·      Nurse Bee – in this role, she is responsible for feeding larva, and looking after any sick or injured bees in the hive.

·      Construction Bee – there are a few positions as a construction bee, including wax production (wax is produced in glands on the underside of a worker bee’s abdomen), construction worker (chews and shapes the flakes of wax) and the engineering worker (ensures those hexagons are perfect).

·      Honey-making Bee (my favorite bee!) - this is a stage of development where she has specific enzymes in her honey-stomach to actually turn the nectar brought in by the foraging bee into honey.

SECOND THREE WEEKS AS A WORKER BEE

Foraging worker in a crocus

At about three weeks of age our worker bee is refer to as a foraging bee. Foraging is left for the older worker bees as it is a dangerous occupation.

Here are some of the many hazards that may befall a foraging worker.

·      She may get eaten by another animal – in Southern Alberta, skunks are quite a hazard as they like to sit at the step of a honey bee hive, gather up the coming and going workers, and simply eat them.

·      During the summer many vehicle grills are dotted with foraging worker bees who tried to cross the road.

·      A sudden wind or rain storm can leave a forager stranded away from her hive – a worker bee uses honey for fuel to fly, and if she runs out of honey, she can’t fly and is left to walk home. You can help her out by providing a walking honey bee with a drop of honey, she can have a snack and the energy to fly home.

·      Water is essential to the survival of a honey bee hive, but gathering water can be a death-defying act.

·      Somewhere toward the end of her foraging life, our worker bee may become a guard bee. This job becomes of paramount importance towards early fall – when robbing season begins. Not only does she have to defend her hive from robbing workers from other hives, but wasps are looking for a fall snack as well.

Our foraging bees have a few things on their shopping lists.

·      Nectar is the main ingredient of honey. Nectar is collected from flowers and carried back to the hive in a honey bee’s ‘honey stomach.’ The foraging bee starts the process of turning the nectar into honey, but has to transfer the nectar to a younger ‘honey-making bee’ in the hive for the process to be complete.

·      Pollen is what our foraging bee gets covered in while she’s retrieving nectar from a flower. The pollen dust settles on her fuzzy body. As she flies away she cleans the pollen off, adds a little nectar or honey to dry pollen spores, and sticks the granule to her back legs.

·      Tree resin – this is one of the ingredients used to produce propolis. Propolis is a mixture of tree resin, wax and water. It is used to sterilize all cells in the hive. It also serves as a sealant for the hive against wind and rain. Propolis is so sticky, that hive boxes can not be pulled apart without the use of a hive tool!

·      Water – as for all living things, including honey bees, water is essential. Water is also used to help cool the hive down during the hot summer months.

After three weeks as a house bee and an additional three or so weeks as a foraging bee, our worker bee is worn out. Her contribution to the survival of her hive is over. Hopefully, there are many more honey bees to continue where she has left off, and ensure the survival of her species.

Busy workers on top of honey frames