Question

Which of the following statements is (are) true?

• A. The drone bee lays thousands of eggs that hatch to become the new bees.
• B. Worker bees are males and help in fertilising the eggs laid by the queen bee.
• C. The only job of drones is to collect honey.
• D. Depending on the flora of a given area, the maximum number of hives that can be placed in one apiary can vary.

Answer 1

The correct option is D Depending on the flora of a given area, the maximum number of hives that can be placed in one apiary can vary.

The queen bee in her first flight gathers sperm from drones by mating and stores them in a sack inside her body. She then lays thousands of eggs. It is upto the choice of the queen bee to fertilise or not to fertilise the eggs. The fertilised eggs form female worker bees while the unfertilised eggs form male drone bees. The worker bees collect nectar from the plants and make honey. Apiary is the area where bees are reared but the number of hives in an area depends on the flora because the bees compete with other species to collect nectar from the flowers.