How Long do Bees Live and what kinds of jobs do they have?
This question comes up a lot while I am at the market. Bees have much more work to do in the spring and summer. The flying alone wears them and their wings out. In the winter their primary job is to keep the queen warm and fed and the hive alive. They live on what the summer and spring bees have stored. I found the following explanation on Wikipidia and thought it was explained perfectly. So I did what I do best. I copied and pasted it here for you!
Enjoy
Female worker bees
Almost all the bees in a hive are female worker bees. At the height of summer when activity in the hive is frantic and work goes on non-stop, the life of a worker bee may be as short as 6 weeks; in late autumn, when no brood is being raised and no nectar is being harvested, a young bee may live for 16 weeks, right through the winter. During its life a worker bee performs different work functions in the hive, largely dictated by the age of the bee.
| Period | Work activity |
|---|---|
| Days 1-3 | Cleaning cells and incubation |
| Day 3-6 | Feeding older larvae |
| Day 6-10 | Feeding younger larvae |
| Day 8-16 | Receiving nectar and pollen from field bees |
| Day 12-18 | Beeswax making and cell building |
| Day 14 onwards | Entrance guards; nectar, pollen, water and
propolis foraging; robbing other hives
|
