The Difference Between Queen, Drone, and Worker Bees

I was browsing through all the pictures of my hive and came across some great pictures of the queen, some drones, and worker bees, so I have decided to do a post on the three different types of bees.

As you have probably guessed, the queen is the long bee in the center of the photo. You may also bee wondering why there is a red dot on her back (no, that is not natural). Check out the chart below, it should clear things up. Because my queen has been marked with a red dot, I know that she was born this year in 2013. These dots make it easy for beekeepers to track the age of queens, which is useful when you want to replace all your old queens. Although both the queen and worker bees are female, the queen is the only bee that is able to lay fertile eggs. Also, the queen can live for five years instead of the weeks or months of a worker. Queens are always longer than worker bees, and she is easy to spot because there is always a circle of attending bees around the her. There are other subtle differences as well, for example, the queen does have a stinger, but it is rarely used and is not barbed.

Credit for this chart goes to beeinformed.org

This is the drone bee. Drone bees are the only male bees in the hive. They are pretty useless. Drones have no stinger and don't forage. The only thing drones can do is reproduce, unless you count eating the hive's honey supply as a talent. In the spring, drones fly out and search for another queen on a mating flight. Only a few will find her, and after mating with the queen, each will fall to his death. In the fall when there are no more mating queens, the workers will kick all of the drones out of the hive because they are no longer useful. The workers will literally drag the drones out of the hive and prevent their reentry, which is pretty hilarious.

The drones have some aesthetic differences as well. Look at the bottom center of this picture. There is a drone right next to a worker bee, so you can really see the difference between them. The drone has much larger eyes that pretty much cover his whole head. Drones are also slightly longer and wider than worker bees.

Finally, the workers. You can see plenty of worker bees in almost all of my pictures, and the worker is probably what you imagine when you think of a bee. Worker bees are infertile female bees. They start out as nurse bees that take care of the queen and feed larva, but after a few weeks, they will exit the hive and begin foraging for pollen and nectar. 

That is a basic explanation of the three types of bees. If you have any other questions post them in the comments.