The Queen, Workers, and Drones

Every hive has ONE queen bee — she is the most important bee! The queen is the largest bee in the hive and her only job is to lay eggs — up to 2,000 eggs per DAY! She can live 3 to 5 years, while worker bees live only about 6 weeks in summer. The queen releases special chemicals called pheromones that control the entire hive's behavior. When a queen gets old or dies, the workers feed a special food called ROYAL JELLY to selected baby bees, and one of them becomes the new queen!