Beekeeping and Honey! — drone RSS

What does a Drone do in the hive? Nothing! Well, not alot. The Drone is named for the Old English meaning - 'loafer'.  Which he is. Co-Starring: The Male Drone Bee The Drone is a boomba of a bee. Plumper than a worker, with thick heavy wings to support the frisky business in the air, and big bulbous eyes all the better to see a Queen on-the-wing with. He spends his time at a 'Drone meeting area' hanging with his bro's, waiting to smell out a Queen who wants some nip-nip wiggy wiggy! Each day, he saunters home where the workers feed and clean him. Should the Drone actually manage to get his end in, he comes to a nasty...

Out and about in the community running our honey stall at markets, I often get asked about who does what in the hive. Questions like 'is the Queen the Boss?', 'what do the boy bees do?', 'how do they produce different flavoured honeys?'...This post is about trying to sum up some of these questions. Starring: The Queen Bee The Queen of the Hive is about half as big again as the worker bees. She has a sleek, shiny abdomen that has paired ovarioles numbering about 150 within her large ovary. Some say she is waspish in appearance, as her wings are smaller than a workers', as is her head. However, she does not have any of the waspish tendencies such...