Image Gallery » What's Inside a Hive
Welcome to the hive doorway Bees live in large colonies. Groups of bees have different jobs within the hive. Often the jobs change with age and experience. Guarding the doorway from attackers such as wasps or mice is the job of a small number of bees. They will quickly despatch any unwanted visitors by stinging them and killing them. Should the hive be threatened by a more serious agressor, many more bees will join in the defence of the hive. | Inside a hive The first sight to greet you when you open a hive is a mass of calm industrious bees. A beehive box consists of ten suspended frames that the bees create Honey Comb on. |
The Queen Bee The Queen bee is larger than the workers. She is 24mm long with brown legs. She has a distinctive smooth enlarged abdomen. | A Worker Bee This is a young worker bee sitting on Heidi's glove. Look at all the hairs, the shape of the head, the colours and the shiny eye. A worker bee measures approx 16mm long. |
A Drone bee seen from above Drone bees are larger than worker bees. They are barrel like with much bigger eyes. They use their large eyes to spot queen bees at mating time. Drones only number a few hundred in a hive (up to about 5% of the bees in the hive). They do not forage outside the hive. They don't carry out any hive tasks and all die out in autumn. New drone bees are produced the following spring. | Orange coloured pollen stored in cells Worker bees collect pollen from many plants. Pollen contains protein, minerals and vitamins. Bees pack the pollen into cells for use by the colony. Pollen comes in many shades of colour so beekeepers can often tell what plants the bees have been visiting most. |
A brood panel This frame shows capped brood. The paler capped cells are younger. See also the pearly white young larvae in the bottom of the picture. Larvae are capped by the worker bees at day 12. | A brood frame with young white larvae Bees start from an egg. The egg hatches into a young larvae on day three. They then curl into a C shape in the bottom of the cell. These larvae are about day 7 to 8. |
Worker bees tending larvae Worker bees tend to individual larvae continuously. A larvae may be fed dozens of times a day. |