CHESHIRE BEEKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION Apes curamus et nos curant (We
look after bees and they look after us) Registered Charity No.
227494 Within the bee colony there are 3 castes a) One Queen b)
Thousands of Workers c) Several Hundred Drones. The Queen is the
mother of the bees and lays the eggs. The workers are under
developed females that do all the work, and possess the sting.
The drones, or males who mate with the virgin Queens to produce
new colonies. Drones have no sting. Honey bee colonies can have
upward of 60,000 bees compared with Bumblebee nests which will
only have say 150 bees. Honey bees are the vegetarians of the
insect world. They collect nectar (carbohydrate or energy),
which is converted into honey, and pollen (protein). Beeswax is
secreted from special glands on the bees abdomen and the bees
will hang on to each other and build comb within any enclosed
space they occupy. Each of the cells in the comb is 6 sided, or
hexagonal making the most efficient use of space and the
hexagonal structure is