What Are Worker Bees?

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Bees and Colony Caste Hierarchy

Most bee colonies are eusocial. This means that bee colonies display an advanced level of social organization consisting typically of a single reproducer (in the case of the bee, this is the queen) or reproductive caste and other hierarchical castes that are born to perform different tasks. 

Eusociality is also defined by the presence of cooperative care of offspring, regardless of whose offspring it is. There are several other insects that live in eusocial societies including certain insects, crustaceans and mammals, but can be most clearly seen in ants, bees, and wasps.

The Importance of the Worker Bee

Worker bees are exceptionally important, performing jobs that are not just crucial for the health and wellbeing of their hive, but also for the world’s ecosystem. The worker bee makes up the largest caste in a bee colony. Worker bees are all female (male bees are called drones and have a different job). While all worker bees are female, they do not reproduce. Worker bees gather pollen from flowers. Worker bees are equipped with “pollen baskets” on their back legs which they fill with pollen to carry back to their hive. It is then used as food for developing eggs, larvae and pupal bees. In the pollen gathering process, some of the pollen in a worker bee’s pollen basket may rub off onto the pistil of a flower. 

This process, called “cross pollination” is extremely important to the world’s ecosystem as a critical amount of the world’s food supply, notably, most of its fruit, depends heavily on crop pollination by honey bees. 

Other Worker Bee Jobs

It also falls on the worker bee to maintain the area of the hive where new bees are born and raised. Worker bees must keep the hive temperature uniform, which is exactly 94 degrees Fahrenheit in order to incubate the eggs. If this area becomes too hot, worker bees will collect water and place it all around the hive and then fan the air surrounding the eggs thus cooling the eggs through evaporation. If the temperature around the eggs drops below 94 degrees, worker bees will gather around  the eggs to generate heat with their collective bodies.

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