Lesson 6: Queen, Workers and Drones
The three kinds of bees in every colony, and how to tell them apart
A honey bee colony isn't just a crowd of bees. It works like a single living thing made of thousands of individuals, each with a job. Honey bees are social insects, like ants, termites and some wasps: they live together, share the work of finding food and raising young, and come in different types, called castes.
Honey bees are also vegetarians. Their protein comes from pollen, and their sugar comes from honey, which they make from nectar.
Every colony has three kinds of bee: one queen, thousands of workers, and, in spring and summer, some drones.
The workers
Workers are females that can't normally lay fertilized eggs, and they do all the work of the colony. A colony may have anywhere from 2,000 to 60,000 workers, depending on the time of year and the colony's strength.
- Workers are the smallest of the three.
- Their bodies are built for collecting food. Each hind leg has a pollen basket for carrying pollen home.
- They make wax from glands on the underside of the abdomen and use it to build comb.
- They have a barbed stinger. When a worker stings a thick-skinned animal (or a person), the stinger and venom sac tear out of her body, and she dies.
Lesson 8 follows a worker through her life, job by job.
The queen
The queen is the only fully fertile female in the colony, and her job is laying eggs. She is literally the mother of the thousands of bees in the hive. There is usually only one queen per colony.
- She is longer than a worker, with a long abdomen that holds her egg-laying organs.
- During the busy season a good queen can lay somewhere around 1,500 to 2,000 or more eggs a day (published figures differ).
- She also shapes the colony's behavior by giving off chemical signals called pheromones. Workers pass her scent around the hive, and it helps keep the colony organized (lesson 11).
Queens and workers start life the same way. Both come from fertilized eggs. When a colony needs a new queen, the workers pick a few very young female larvae and feed them a rich food called royal jelly. Those larvae grow into queens. The only difference between a worker and a queen is how she was fed as a larva.
The drones
Drones are the males. A colony may have none at all, or up to about 500, in spring and summer.
- Drones are bigger and bulkier than workers, with huge eyes that wrap around the top of the head and meet in the middle.
- The abdomen is thick and blunt, not pointed.
- Drones have no stinger. Only females have one, because the stinger developed from an egg-laying part.
- A drone's one job is mating. Drones fly out and mate in the air with queens from other colonies.
- They don't collect food or build comb. When food runs short and winter comes, workers push the drones out of the hive.
Drones come from unfertilized eggs; workers and queens come from fertilized eggs.
Telling them apart
| Worker | Queen | Drone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sex | Female | Female | Male |
| Number | 2,000–60,000 | Usually 1 | 0–500, spring and summer |
| Size and shape | Smallest; pointed abdomen | Longest; long, tapering abdomen | Bulkiest; blunt, rounded abdomen |
| Eyes | Normal | Normal | Very large, meet on top of the head |
| Stinger | Barbed (she dies after stinging) | Yes | None |
| Job | All the colony's work | Laying eggs | Mating with queens from other colonies |
| Comes from | Fertilized egg | Fertilized egg, larva fed royal jelly | Unfertilized egg |
How it looks:
A queen (center, with the long abdomen) among workers.
A queen seen from above: notice how long her abdomen is compared with a worker's.
What to remember
- Workers: thousands of sterile females that do all the work; barbed stinger.
- Queen: usually one; the only egg-layer; guides the colony with her scent (pheromones).
- Drones: males; no stinger; big eyes and blunt body; their job is mating; pushed out before winter.
- Queen or worker is decided by food: larvae fed only royal jelly, throughout, become queens.
Quick check
- What decides whether a female larva becomes a queen or a worker?
- How can you tell a drone from a worker?
- Why can't a drone sting you?
Show answers
1. Her diet: larvae chosen to be queens are fed royal jelly. 2. Drones are bigger and bulkier, with a blunt abdomen and huge eyes that meet on top of the head. 3. Drones have no stinger; only females do.
Adapted from: UGA Bee Program, Getting Started: Honey Bee Biology; Delaplane, K. S., Honey Bees and Beekeeping (UGA Extension Bulletin 1045, rev. 2017); UF/IFAS Extension, European Honey Bee (EENY568/IN1005) and Welcome to the Apiary! (4H446); Penn State Extension, An Introduction to Queen Honey Bee Development (Anton & Grozinger, updated 2025).
Photos: queen and workers, Jessica Lawrence, Eurofins Agroscience Services, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0 · queen from above, USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab, CC BY 2.0 (both via Wikimedia Commons).
Adapted from university Extension sources. Experienced Georgia beekeepers are reviewing these lessons. See something that doesn't match your experience? Tell us.