Inside the Hive Trivia Quiz

Answer: Perform a 'waggle' dance

When the worker bee happens on a good source of nectar, pollen or water, she performs a special dance relating to her find. This identifies what she has found, and specific directions equivalent to compass bearings and distance from the hive.

Answer: Drone

The drone exists only to mate with the queen, and is well fed and cared for by his sisters, the workers.

Answer: They will be cared for and fed by the workers for a time

The drones will continue to be cared for until the queen has started producing brood, and often longer. However, most drones are forcibly ejected from the hive before the onset of winter in order to maintain an efficient colony with few non-productive mouths to feed.

Answer: Special 'bee bread' and honey

Bees produce several different kinds of foods - the majority of bee larvae eat honey, the queen (and queen larvae) are fed royal jelly.

Bee bread is a fermented product made by the worker which contains all the protein.

Answer: His abdomen rips open when his sex organ breaks off

The drone has a short life but a merry one. When a young queen takes flight, she flies to where a large group of males has gathered, and mates with several of them (still in flight). Some drones survive the first few matings, but eventually its endophallus (sex organ) will break off, attached to the queen.

This will rip his abdomen open and he will quickly die. The next drone will remove the endophallus before he repeats the procedure.

Answer: A few weeks in summer and several months in a long winter

The western honeybee life cycle varies according to climate, time of year and the amount of work she performs. She will literally end up dying of overwork. In Australia the average worker's life in summer is about 42 days from emerging from her cell.

Answer: Three to five years

Once she emerges from her cell, the virgin queen will embark on her mating flight. She will either then return to the hive (if there is not already a strong queen there) or start her new swarm. Typically she will go on to constantly produce brood while being fed royal jelly by her workers.

The average lifespan is three to five years, though it appears that in some German varieties, the queen has been known to survive for up to fifteen years. This is very rare.

Answer: Yes, but not viable worker bee eggs

In the event of the death of their queen, the workers are able to lay drone brood, but as the queen is the only one to mate, only she can lay fertilised eggs (necessary to produce queens or workers).

Answer: Everything from cleaning, caring for the queen and brood, and collecting food

The young worker is set to work from the moment she emerges from her cell. She starts by cleaning and capping cells and general hive maintenance, caring for the queen, feeding her royal jelly, and also feeding the brood. She will progress to comb building, and cooling the nest by fluttering her wings, and will eventually emerge from the hive to collect food and water.

Answer: Immediately seeks out rival queens within the hive and kills them

The old queen will prevent any new queens from emerging for as long as she has vigor. Usually the workers will start to feed several cells royal jelly once they sense the old queen weakening, or if she dies. Each of these cells can contain a viable queen.

The first queen to emerge has the advantage over the others, and when she emerges she will hurry around the hive and sting her rivals (still cell-bound) to death. She will then go on a mating flight.