by Jim Mize

• Introduction
• Female Dominance
• Doing the Bee Boogie
• Makin' Honey but Not Biscuits
• Steer Clear of Swarms
• Download this article as a

Female Dominance

Bee society, unsurprisingly, is dominated by women. They run the beehive and do all the work. At least half the readers of Carolina Country magazine are unsurprised by this.

The head female bee, known appropriately as the queen, is the largest bee in the hive, though all the male bees know better than to point this out. None of the males ever graduate to king, likely due to a lack of ambition.

The queen also rules the roost with an iron wing. The workers, which are infertile females, build the hive, search for nectar, feed the young, and vacuum. Well, maybe not vacuum, but literally everything else. The male bees, known as drones, just mate with the queen and die. Males lack the ability to sting; they buzz a lot, and are completely harmless, although their incessant buzzing probably indicates they talk a good game with their buddies.

To prove just how useless male bees are, if food becomes scarce in the fall, the females kick them out and let them starve, unless the queen is around to stick up for them. Coincidentally, this occurs about the same time as football season.

The queen bee’s control of the hive comes not surprisingly from the use of hormones. One hormone is used to attract drones and another is used to keep other females infertile. With all these hormones and females in one hive, it makes sense that the males would be completely harmless, lack a sting, and get thrown out of the hive to starve.