Jobs of a Worker Bee

The worker bee only lives for 5-6 weeks, but they are so busy during this time! In this short period, they will hold a variety of jobs that all contribute to the productivity of the hive.

After hatching, these insects will first be hive cleaners. They work to clear out their cell to make room for a new egg, as well as carrying out dead bees and dirt to make sure the hive is nice and tidy.

They then become nurse bees, helping to feed the larva and take care of the queen. While taking care of the queen, they become “attendants” and help to feed and clean her while she lays eggs. When they do this, they send out a special pheromone scent to alert the other workers that their queen is healthy.

After that, they become pollen packers, where their job is to neatly pack pollen into cells. They also work as wax masons, crafting the wax from the glands in their abdomen. They also contribute to temperature control in the hive, as well as collecting and storing water.

Soon after, these bees will become guards, where they sit at the entrance of the hive to watch for intruders or possible threats. If they see any, they will send out a pheromone scent to the rest of the hive to warn them.

At the end of their life, the workers will go out and forage for pollen and nectar, as well as turning the nectar into honey. When they make honey, they will use their long, straw-like tongue to suck up nectar into their honey stomach. In there, it will mix with a special enzyme and water. Once flown back to the hive, the bee will load this mixture into the honeycomb, then flutter their wings hard to dehydrate the honey down to the sticky substance that is honey!

Bees Like to Clean

This is what propolis looks like in a beehive.
It glues the frames together and seals all cracks.

Do you know the first thing a female honeybee does when she is born? She crawls out of her honeycomb cell, turns back around,  and begins cleaning. Honeybees like to keep their home clean. Have you ever heard it said honeybees keep their hives cleaner than a hospital? They do this through their use of propolis and cleaning each other.

Propolis is made of sap from trees mixed with beeswax and enzymes (special substances which give cleaning and medicinal properties). Beekeepers like to call it “bee glue” because it is a sticky substance the honeybees use to seal up cracks so no dust or debris can come in the hive. Just like a lot of the other products of the hive, propolis has cleansing properties. It cleans the air and any substance it comes in contact with. In fact, the air is so clean that it is considered sterile.

This nasal spray has propolis in it to boost
your immune system.

Just like honeybees love propolis for cleaning, a lot of medicine companies like to make cough drops with propolis. You can also find propolis in tinctures (propolis in liquid form that you can take a drop of if you’re getting sick), lip balms, toothpaste, mouthwash, and nasal spray. You can use propolis just like the honeybees do to stay healthy!

The second way honeybees keep the hive clean is through their behavior. If a hive is infected with a disease, the worker bees will remove everything infected and it will not be allowed back inside the hive. This is especially important to prevent spread of diseases. Once they remove it, they clean everything again with propolis. The honeybees even help clean each other and the queen to keep the hive as clean as possible. 

These bees are cleaning off a bee who came 
home from a day foraging.

By using propolis and having careful behavior, honeybees keep the hive extremely clean. 

The Busy Life of a Worker Bee

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a bee inside a hive? Well, for the female worker bees, it is pretty busy! Just like there are many different jobs that people do in our world today, there are different jobs worker bees do in their hive. From the day they are born until the moment they die, they really are “busy little bees” working to build and better their beehive. Each worker has five main jobs she completes in her lifetime of 3-5 weeks, and she instinctively knows when it’s time to switch to each job.  


A newly hatched worker bee





1. Housekeeping 

Her work begins right after she hatches out of her cell. She turns around and begins cleaning out her cell, preparing it for the queen to lay a new egg. As a housekeeping bee, she will continue to clean the hive, taking out anything that does not belong inside the beehive.  





A nurse bee feeding baby bee larvae

2. Nurse

Her job as a nurse bee begins when she develops special glands in her head that help her make food for the queen and baby bees. These glands are called hypopharyngeal glands and produce a milky-white substance called royal jelly. As a nurse bee, she helps feed and care for the young larvae or baby bees and gets to serve in the queen’s court where she cares for and feeds the queen bee.

3. Wax

Her next job as a worker bee requires her to make beeswax to build new cells and repair old cells. How does she make the wax? When she eats honey, her body produces wax from eight wax glands located on her abdomen. The wax flakes off, and she forms it into the perfect hexagon shapes you see in honeycomb. She will also store nectar and pollen that other worker bees bring into the hive by packing it into the wax cells.

Worker bees guarding the entrance of their hive 

4. Guard



As a guard bee, a worker bee will stay at the entrance of the hive, defending it from any invaders such as wasps or predators like skunks. Honey bees easily recognize bees from their own hive by scent and will chase away any bee not from their hive. Guard bees release an alarm pheromone to warn their hive when there is an intruder. Pheromones are scents (much like perfume) that the bees release from their bodies to communicate with each other. The guards also help cool the hive down when it gets hot by fanning their wings to move air throughout the hive.

5. Forager

A worker's last job as a foraging bee is when she finally gets to leave the hive and fly out to gather food and supplies. She will work from sunup to sundown visiting flowers to gather nectar and pollen. Did you know that honey bees actually collect more than just nectar and pollen? They also collect water to help cool the hive if it’s hot and tree sap to make propolis, which is sticky bee glue. 



A worker bee collects nectar and pollen from flowers

In between jobs, worker bees may also serve the hive by helping with various tasks, such as removing dead bees from the hive, making propolis and applying it in the hive, and fanning nectar to evaporate water from it. 

Worker honey bees are very committed to their different jobs, working until their wings are so torn they can no longer fly. The jobs performed by each bee may be small, but by working together and contributing their part, honey bees can have a strong and healthy hive.