Question

A colony of honey bee consists of
A. One queen and a few drones
B. One queen, 10-100 drones and 20000-80000 workers
C. Two queens, 5-10 drones and 20000 workers
D. No queen, 10-20 drones and 20000 workers

Answer 1

Honey bees are social animals who live in large family groups called colonies. A full sized colony contains an average of 60000 individuals.

Complete answer:
Let’s analyse the question to find the correct answer
Honey bees live in large colonies, which are well organised. Excellence in communication, complex nest formation, defence and division of labour helps them to exist as successful social animals. A honey bee colony consists of three kinds of bees, which are workers, drones and a queen.

Each colony has only one queen. Queen is the only sexually developed female, and her primary role is reproduction. Queen lays up to 1500 eggs per day and 250000 per year. This comprises both fertilized and unfertilized eggs. Fertilized eggs give rise to worker bees and unfertilized eggs result in drones. They are also responsible for producing a pheromone which works as a social glue for the unification of all bees from a colony.
Drones or the male bees are the largest in size among the bees. Drones are responsible for fertilizing the female eggs. Drones mate outdoor flying and die soon after mating. There are usually 10-100 drones per colony.
Worker bees are the largest population within a colony. They are the undeveloped female flies and are the smallest in size. They are unable to reproduce in normal conditions. They are essential members because they are responsible for foraging pollen and nectar, feeding the larvae, ventilating the hive, defending the nest and other tasks for the survival of the colony. There are approximately 20000-80000 worker bees per colony.

Honey bees swarming is a part of developing colonies. When the hive is overcrowded, the old queen leaves the hive with half of the worker bees and forms another colony. The new queen remains in the hive with the other bees.

Hence, the correct answer is option (B)

Note: 1. If the queen gets killed accidently, the bees select a younger worker larva to produce the queen.
2. Worker bees produce a substance called royal jelly which feeds the larvae.