Question

In a colony of honeybees, the worker bees are

• A. sterile males
• B. fertile males
• C. fertile females
• D. sterile females

Answer 1

The correct option is D sterile females

Honeybees belong to the phylum Arthropoda. They belong to the family Apidae of the order Hymenoptera in the class Insecta. They are highly social creatures living in colonies.

Each honeybee colony has 3 types of members- a queen, drones and workers.


The queen is the only fertile female bee that lays eggs. She produces both fertilised (destined to become a worker or a queen) and unfertilised eggs (destined to become males).

Any fertilised egg has the potential to become a queen. Diet in the larval stage determines whether the bee will develop into a queen or a worker. The larvae fed with royal jelly (a protein-rich secretion from the workers) become queen. The larvae fed with bee bread which is a mixture of nectar and pollen develop into workers.

The worker bees are the sterile females who perform all the miscellaneous jobs such as cleaning and polishing the cells, feeding the brood (larvae and pupae of the bees), caring for the queen, removing debris, handling nectar, etc.

Drones are the fertile male bees in the colony whose job is to fertilise the queen. Drones become sexually mature about a week after emerging from the hive cells and die instantly upon mating.